Our First Week Here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V79G_qRuhP0&feature=youtu.be

The video of our first week here! Enjoy!!

Housing, Casting, and everything else crammed in one day!

WHEW! 
What a day. 
((Just a warning...this is a long one.))

After multiple disagreements, discussions...The alarm went off at 2 am to get up and go stand in line at 3 am for housing. And boy, was I glad we got there at 3! We had gone to Walmart, which is a story in itself, the day before and got the last two bag chairs. So there we sat, 3 am, with all our roommates and the line to check in was already a good 50 people deep in front of us. By 5 am, that number grew to around 100 people. With all our roommates finally together around 6:30 am, all that was left to do was wait... and wait.... and wait. Around 7 am the check in process started. We all were able to stay in line to give our name, and then wait in another line. And then, suddenly, everybody was gone and it was just me left in line! They divided us up by last name.. A-L and then M-Z.. of course all of my roommates and all of Zach's roommates including Zach all had last names M-Z. So I waited in the longer line alone, and then they wouldn't let people wait for other people they wanted to room with! I thought we were dunzo right there, Zach and his roommates would be fine, and my other two roommmates would be together, but I was afraid that I was going to get wicked separated and lost in the shuffle and get stuck alone, for good. I took a deep breath and knew that somehow it was all going to work out and that it would be okay. Rumors made it back to me that the line we were standing in was to get our placement for work, which we thought we didn't get. Zach made it through the line quickly and was able to tell me across the room that he was stationed in Hollywood Studios! As the line crept forward I waited in so much anticipation to try to get back together with my group, and to find out where I was working! Finally it was MY turn.. I get up to the line, and the greeter is super excited for everyone else;s, she hands me mine and says, ohhhh you're a lifeguard! Well yeah, I already knew that! But where it is supposed to say my placement.. it says to be determined. Of course it does. Once I got past my check in and signing documents part, we all were united again right before we decided where we wanted to live! At the last minute we all decided on 2 bedrooms in Patterson, which is the newest complex. I made it through housing quicker than Zach did and was able to give him the thumbs up that we got into Patterson. When I asked him what number room he got, I lit right up! He's in 8104 and I'm....drum roll.......8103!! Right next to each other! Once we got our keys and car tags, we went to go stand in another line.. to go to Casting to wait in more lines and finish filling out paperwork. My tag on the back of my planner is bright yellow, and everyone else's is just standard white. I figured it was just because I didn't have my placement yet. Boy was I wrong, just as I was getting in line I was pulled aside, whisked away, and told I had to go do my drug testing. I didn't have time to tell anybody where I was going it happened so fast. I was able to text Zach who said that everybody, his roommates and mine, were all going to casting together at 9 am. It's now 8:30 at this point. I look down at my planner, and my casting time... drum roll.......3:30 pm. Forever Alone. So now I have 6 hours to kill, by myself, and mind you it is monsooning outside. So I went along to my next adventure...moving into my apartment.

I know how to navigate the roads pretty well by now. Not that it didn't take a lot of patiences, and time, and frustrated tears..but I did it, so I had no problem finding the apartment on my own. Once I got there I showed the guard my ID and he told me where to go. Only problem with that is, I can't find the last building on the left because the last building on the left is caution taped off and the doors and windows are covered in plastic tarping. So I decide to walk, in the monsoon, because I'm already soaked from walking back to the hotel to get my car, and find out what I'm missing. After 5-10 minutes, I realize that the tarped building, is in fact my building. So I then go over to the guard, tell him my ordeal, who sends me to the front desk, who calls some guy, and tells me to meet him there. So I'm walking back to my apartment, and this golf cart zooms by heading towards my apartment.. this guy very well knows that I am the one going to meet him at the apartment.. do you think he slows down for even a second?? No. Looks at me, and then zooms right along. Whatever, I'm soaked anyways, whats 30 more seconds. He tells me that the apartment is open, and the paint is wet. Yeah, Got it. Cool. So nothings wrong with my apartment, I'm just too scared to get terminated to cross over the red caution tape and walk around all of the workers ladders and paint. So I open the door and the apartment is BEEAAUUTIFULL. Soooo big and spacious and nice and high ceilings! It's awesome. After I get all my stuff, and most of Zach's stuff in, I went back to Vista, which is where housing was, picked him up..came back and took a much needed power nap.

At 3 I went to Casting.. We made it to the front doors of cast around 4:15 and they had said that the process takes anywhere from 2 hours.. to 4 hours. We'll because of the drug testing, this casting slot is filled up with a lot of lifeguards, and we all have to take our lifeguarding swim test tonight at 6. So, as quick as we were in line for casting, we were pulled aside and went through the system SO FAST it literally made my head spin. What was supposed to take 2 hours at least, took me 30 minutes tops. I didn't even have time to take pictures of the grand entrance I was so rushed around. So as fast as casting started, it ended and I was on my way back to Vista..again..to get in my car quick, stop at the Holiday Inn, because of course we forgot things in the room at 2 am, and then get over to Mickey's Retreat, which is a special area of tennis courts and basketball courts and pools and ponds and boats just for Cast Members and their families, so that I can take my lifeguarding certification. Lifeguarding certification was a big success! Only when we were in the middle of our 200M swim, the lights went out on the pool and everybody had to get out. So 10 minutes later when the lights came back on.. did we get to start our laps from where we left off?? Nope. Start them again. Needless to say, after only having time for a half a turkey sandwich all day, my legs were shaking. After the swim we swam down to the deep end, 8 ft, retrieved a 10 lb brick from the bottom of the pool... and then had to tread water with our hands out of the water for 2 minutes. Piece of cake... when you've had a good nights sleep and plenty to eat and drink throughout the day. After that ended, 7:30 pm, I met Zach back at the apartments and went out for some deserved and needed, chinese food.

So there you have it.. the first day of Disney all summed up into the first chapter of my book. Hope you have a magical day! ;]

Pictures!!:

On the road again..

1,200 miles, 19 hours, 4 tanks of gas, 2 bathroom breaks...and at 3:30 AM WE FINALLY MADE IT!!

After setting my alarm to PM, not AM.. I was pretty sure we were in for a loooonnggg day. We pulled out of the driveway, after many goodbyes and hugs, at about 8:15 and headed on our way to Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Obviously the first thing we did once we got in the car was plugged in the GPS, which calculated us getting to LBV, at about 2 in the morning. We both just looked at each other with hope in our eyes that we could possibly make it all the way in one trip. We had discussed stopping at Greenville NC, where I have family, but that put us 4 hours out of the way.. then we discussed possibly stopping in Savannah, GA where my brothers live, but ultimately decided that we would assess our situation once we got to Savannah.

Zach drove for the first 5.5 hours and then we switched and I took over for about 5 hours. The first hour or so was pretty quite as we had just said goodbye to our families. After that we got to reminiscing about all the memories we had made during the summer with everybody, and how quickly time seemed to go by. All morning we had been listening to the weather and keeping an eye on it, as there was a nasty rain/snow system moving across the entire belt of the east coast. We didn't hit rain until about 3 pm, and even though it was coming down pretty good, we didn't stop. If it was unsafe to keep going we would have but, as I described it, the roads here feel very grippy. I was never worried about driving in the rain. We stopped outside of Raleigh, NC and grabbed a bite to eat at about 6pm, the first time we ate all day besides a granola bar in the morning. After we ate, we rain into some pretty heavy rain. Zach was driving, which I was thankful for. I kept track of the rain and after about an hour or so, the rain subsided and eventually when we got into South Carolina, it was like a desert that hadn't seen rain in months. We switched again, and made it into Savannah at about 11pm. We had both just been laughing so much that I had a wicked case of the hiccups, and we were still in good spirits so we decided to keep going. Jacksonville is only 2 hours away and we would again decide what to do once we got there. Again we decided to keep going. It's now 1am and we are both doing good. At 3:21 am we pulled into our hotel, Sunspree Holiday Inn Express, Lake Buena Vista. After checking in, we both crashed into bed.

After a long drive, I thought we would sleep until easily 12, but at 10am we were both awake. We showered and then went to get some breakfast. Now we hooked up Zach's XBox to the TV in the room and are now watching Finding Nemo...of course! Time to rest up a bit more and then go explore Orlando/our new home. Pictures to come soon!
~Olivia

Adventure in the great wide somewhere..

Packing, packing and more packing.

T minus 17 hours until we are off to Never Never Land so our lives have been consumed with packing and lists and more packing, not to mention countless trips to Walmart. Whoever invented space bags by the way, pure genius. With two of us packing up the little Chevy Cobalt, we would never make it without the space bags. 2 Jumbo bags fit both of our bedding, including memory foam toppers, mattress protectors, 2 sets of sheets, 2 pillows, a comforter and a fleece blanket, each.

Tomorrow we make our way from Cortland, NY and make it as far as we can until Duck Dynasty starts at 10pm. Cannot miss Duck Dynasty. We were originally hoping on making it to Savanah, Georgia, around at 16 hour drive that will put is in Savanah around midnight. The total trip should take around 20 hours. Zach would love to make the entire trip in one drive, but we'll see how far we actually get.

We both have metioned this week that we aren't nervous or scared to make the trip. Usually around this time Zach starts dreading going back to Alfred, but he realized the other day that he wont be going back and he is so happy. We've been keeping up with the facebook pages and reading about everybody else's adventures who are already down there and we can't wait to join them.

Olivia's Acceptance Story

Ever since I was little I have always loved Disney. My love for Disney grew when I became a New Media Design major and realized all of the detailed work that went into animating the Disney/Pixar movies. It soon became my ultimate dream job to work on a Pixar movie. After doing lots of research I realized that this dream was going to be no easy feat. There are multiple steps and schooling you need to complete before Pixar will even give you the time of day. After researching different internships, I came across the Disney College Program. A program for college students, or recent grads, to go and work in the DisneyLand or Disney World parks and gain invaluable knowledge and experience working for a fortune 500 company, and one of the largest global corporations in the world. I was going to apply during my Junior year to work during my Senior year but the timing just didn't seem right. The DCP went on the back burner as a possibility in the future after I completed my course requirements for graduation. A year or so went by when I was visiting my boyfriend, Zach, in college in September, and we were bored one day discussing the future. He said he needed to do an internship before he could graduate. I had remembered seeing the DCP facebook page had just recently posted that the applications were open for the Spring Semester. After thinking about the idea for roughly 20 minutes, we decided to apply just for the heck of it. It was pretty slim chances that we would both get accepted but we thought we'd just see where it took us. Within a few hours we got an email to complete the web based interview. Excited we debated about starting it at midnight the day we got the email! I'm glad we waited as it was a pretty extensive process. Zach talked to his family about it and mentioned to his brother Jake that he should apply too. Jake and his girlfriend Marina decided to apply and see where it took them. When we were all invited to do the online interview we were excited and hopeful that possibly all of us could be accepted! We started doing more research and learned that only 1 in 100 applicants get accepted to the WDWDCP, or Walt Disney World Disney College Program. After the web-based interview we were all accepted into the next round, the intimidating Phone Interview. All of us feel we did pretty well, and soon it was all in Disney's hands. The 14 day wait seemed like a lifetime as I checked day after day after day to see if I was accepted. One afternoon I was home by myself when Zach called me. He sounds thrilled as he told me he'd been accepted into the Disney College Program! I was speechless, and already silently in tears as I was so excited for him, and worried that I hadn't gotten an email yet. 5 minutes went by, then 10, then 15.. I thought the worst. I wasn't accepted. I started accepting that I had to try to get Zach to go down by himself. 20 minutes went by, and my email dinged. Afraid but excited to open it... and CONGRATULATIONS in big white lettering was across the top of the email. I immediately called Zach and told him I was accepted!  We quickly got off the phone as, 1 of course I was crying and 2 we had a lot of phone calls to make to family members. I remember the feeling of my heart beating through my chest and my cheeks hurt from smiling so big as I read that I was going to be a LIFEGUARD in DISNEY WORLD! You have to be kidding me. I'm not sure a more perfect job exists out there. Lifeguarding was my number 1 choice when they asked me my top 3 and I explained that I had been training for a triathlon during the summer, but thought I blew it when I failed to tell them that I was already Waterfront, Pool, AED and First Aid Red Cross Certified. Jake and Marina also learned that they had been accepted, but regretfully decided that it wasn't the right time for them.  The process since acceptance has been consuming and very involved. I am so excited to go and get started. Realizing that this is the beginning of the rest of my life, is scary, yet so exhilarating. I don't think there is a better place than The Happiest Place in the World to start the rest of my life. I couldn't say thank you enough to the amount of friends and family support I have felt through this whole process as there aren't enough words to adequately give thanks. The hopes of this blog is to share with you our struggles and triumphs as we begin this new journey.
ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE!
~ Olivia