Interview a CP: Mitchell (Sunset Blvd Attractions)

Spieling in Studio C at Coaster! Photo by yours truly ;)

Mitchell is one of the first friends I made during the program. You might recognize him from the vlogger party in Magic Kingdom video that I posted earlier during my program. He has an interesting story, starting out working at Fantasmic! and Beauty and the Beast, but then was able to cross train and transfer to Rockin' Roller Coaster (which is extremely rare for a CP). I'm personally a little jealous, because working at Coaster looks like so much fun!

What role did you have during the DCP, and where did you work?
I'm attractions at Disney's Hollywood Studios within Sunset Attractions. I started off at Fantasmic, and from there I was trained at Beauty and the Beast and Rock 'N' Roller Coaster where I currently work the most.

What was a typical day like at work?
Well while working Fantasmic, I typically did crowd control, loading and unloading guest into a huge amphitheater while also taking care of any guest situations that they had. Now at Rock 'N' Roller Coaster I do any kind of operations from loading to unloading, greeting, and much more.

Is this the role you originally wanted? If not, are you happy you got it?
It is exactly what I wanted, I couldn't of got a better role or place to be put in.

 What are your favorite and least favorite parts about your job?
My favorite parts about my job is for one, guest interaction. Being able to talk to guest and help them out to enjoy their vacation is something I love. I also like to play a character, and I do so at Rock 'N' Roller Coaster by playing a tour guide and a parking attendant. I also love loading the vehicles fast, that way I'm being super efficient and guest get the best of their experience. I honestly couldn't say that I have a least favorite part about my job. Everything I do is fun and it's always something new.

Working at Fantasmic!

Any specific magical moment you want to share?
I think the one moment that will stick with me forever and it's not really a magical moment, but I was at kids spot, which is where we give out stickers for kids to decorate a record with. One little girl was making one and as her parents told her she had to go she handed me her record, I told her that she gets to keep it and take it home and this is what she said to me " I'm not taking this one home, you wanna know why? I replied yes. She said because I made this one for you". I honestly melted after that and I have it hanging up in my room.

What made you want to do the DCP?
I have always wanted to do the Disney College Program since I was in 7th grade, which is when I first heard about it. Even besides that Disney has always been a part of my life, it is my second home. I just wanted to do something bigger than myself and give guests a great Cast Member experience that I received when I was growing up and visited the parks. I want to be with this company long term, and what better way than to start here.

Is there something you wish you would have known before doing your program?
There isn't something I wish I would have known, just because I searched up all the information I could. Maybe though I wish I knew that it was going to be hard to leave close friends that I've made.

What advice would you give to those who are going to be participating in your role?
Focus, safety is main part of our role, and part of the whole company. Do your job right and don't slack or be lazy. Make the guest feel like they are really there.

What advice would you give to people who are interested in doing the DCP?
Do it, that's all, just do it. It's great on your resume and it's an exceptional program to build experience and maturity, along with professionalism. It will help you with speaking better to people and also will help with people skills. Honestly it's one of the best programs anyone could ever do. I'm glad I have been able to experience it and so will you.

I recently was able to find a video of Rock N Roller Coaster with Mitchell as the tour guide in Studio C! Take a look, and pay attention at the :40 mark, that's when Mitchell starts giving his tour!

You can see more about Mitchell's experience on his Youtube channel, Mitch and Trey's Disney Days! (I'm in a couple of those videos!)

If you're a current or past college program cast member and would like to share your experience, email your name and role to thedisneyden@yahoo.com to participate!

I hope everyone has a magical day!

Interview a CP: Christine (Entertainment)

Me meeting Christine's best friend, Daisy!

Christine is one of my best friends that I made during the program! We actually started talking on Tumblr way before we even knew we would be accepted or not. It was so much fun talking to her about our applications, getting accepted, and when she found out she was going to be a character performer! Words cannot describe how much I love this girl. I miss her so much! Okay...on with her interview!

1) What role did you have during the DCP, and where did you work? 
I am a character performer and I’ve worked at all 4 of the parks, the Polynesian and Beach Club, and Typhoon Lagoon!

2) What was a typical day like at work? 
Get up, clock in, warm-up, pull costume, make magic ;)

3) Is this the role you originally wanted? If not, are you happy you got it? 
ABSOLUTELY. I’ve wanted to be a character performer for the longest time.

4) What are your favorite and least favorite parts about your job?
My favorite part is getting to see the guests’ faces light up when they finally meet their favorite character. The kids are adorable (most of the time) and I love being able to make magic for them. My least favorite part is the physical strain it puts on my body. My back, shoulders, and neck have hurt for the past 6 months.

5) Any specific magical moment you want to share? 
One time, Mickey had a dining shift at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom. At this end of his set, a waitress asked him to stop by a table who just wanted to say goodbye again. Usually Mickey doesn’t go out of his set rotation, but the table was on his way back to the kitchen so he stopped by. The little boy at the table was blind and Mickey spent 10 extra minutes in the restaurant with him. The little boy got to “see” Mickey’s face with his hands. It was amazing.

Christine's friend Meeko hangin' with Pocahontas!

6) What made you want to do the DCP? 
I was on a family vacation to Disney World when I was 12 and I randomly decided to ask a girl who was selling balloons on Main Street how I could work here. She told me that I could work here right when I got out of high school (which was obviously a long way away for the 12-year-old me) and that there was a program here for college students. I was sold right then and there.

7) Is there something you wish you would have known before doing your program? 
IF YOU FIND YOUR ROOMMATES BEFOREHAND ON FACEBOOK, DON’T ASSUME THEY’RE NORMAL BECAUSE THEY SEEM IT ONLINE. My last roommates… most of them were fine. One of them was loud, and rude, and just not a pleasant person to be around. I never would’ve expected it from the way she acted online. So just be careful when you choose a roommate. Also! Be prepared to be broke as all hell while you’re down here! (I also wish I would’ve known that not everyone here is as into Disney as you are and you’re going to meet people who are in the program who think Despicable Me is a Disney movie BUT THAT’S BESIDES THE POINT).

8 ) What advice would you give to those who are going to be participating in your role? 
IF YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN ACCEPTED INTO THE PROGRAM AS A CHARACTER PERFORMER, START WORKING OUT. I’M SERIOUS. Do back, neck, and shoulder strengthening exercises. YOU WILL NEED IT.

Christine's good friend Mickey and his pooch, Pluto!

9) What advice would you give to people who are interested in doing the DCP? 

DO IT. Absolutely do it. It will be the best experience of your life. And if it isn’t, I will finish your program FOR you. Even if you’re scared out of your mind because you’ve never lived away from home and you don’t know anyone and you think you’re going to be alone and you’re never going to make friends (AKA me before I got down there), DO IT. I PROMISE YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT. I have learned so much about myself being down here. And I’ve made such good friends who I swear I will keep in contact with until the day I die (AKA SARA, AKA THEDISNEYDEN WOOO HI SARA!).

DO. THE. DCP.

ALSO FOLLOW MY DISNEY BLOG PARDONOURPIXIEDUST (hahaha)

You heard her! Go follow the girl if you have a Tumblr! ;) 

In all seriousness, if you have any questions for her feel free to ask her either on her blog, or you can even ask in the comments and I can ask her for you!

If you're a current or past college program cast member and would like to share your experience, email your name and role to thedisneyden@yahoo.com to participate!

Have a magical day!

Vlogging from Magic Kingdom!

My internet finally decided to cooperate and upload our adventure in Magic Kingdom!

Sara, Liz and I decided to go to MK to finally meet Merida, try a Nutella and fruit waffle sandwich, ride some rides and got to see some surprises along the way!

Enjoy!

Have a magical day everyone!

To see our other videos, check out our Youtube channel, here!

New Cast Member Interview Series!

Many have asked if my friend Sara could write about her experience working at the Wilderness Lodge. I asked her if she would like to write something for you guys, and she was more than willing! However, since she doesn't usually write blog posts, she wasn't sure where to start. This had me thinking...why don't I make it in the style of an interview?

Also, why stop with just Sara's experience? I went ahead and asked a few of my other roommates and friends if they would like to share their experience working in their roles (attractions, entertainment, merchandise, etc.). This way, my readers (and possibly future CP cast members) can see what it's like at different positions in Walt Disney World!

With each CP, I'll be asking a series of questions about their job, experience on the college program, magical moments, and if they have any advice for future potential cast members. If you have any specific kinds of questions that you would like me to ask, let me know! I'll do my best to cover everything you'd like to know. If it's a pretty specific question for a specific role, I can include that in my friend's list of questions if they have not had their interview yet.

Furthermore, if you're a past or current college program cast member and would like to be a part of this, comment below with your role and a form of communication (email, etc.) and I would be more than happy to send you the questions!

Stay updated on when I post the interviews by subscribing! Also make sure to follow on Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook!

My Roommate Experience

All six of us together resort hopping!

On my last post, someone asked me about what happened to my roommates. Apparently they seemed to have "dropped off the face of the Earth" (lol). They didn't, I promise. Let me explain what happens when you room with five other girls.

We started out hanging out together all the time. We made sure everyone could go to whatever park we had planned on visiting that day, and we all went to dinner together. Honestly, we all got along just fine pretty much the entire time. We never had any huge drama, fights, or anything of the sort (which is kind of a miracle for putting six random girls into one living area). The only small problems we'd have were related to everyone doing their part when it came to cleaning the kitchen and preparing for inspection. I'm not going to say names, but we also had some suspicions about some people stealing food without asking...but we could be wrong and it was a very minor occurrence.

Sarah, Liz and I "swerve" in MK

What really got in the way of staying close to all of them was our work schedules. For example, Sarah drove trucks in the Kilimanjaro Safaris in Animal Kingdom, while me, Briana, Sara and Liz worked in Magic Kingdom or MK's resort areas. Animal Kingdom has early morning shifts, while if you work in MK or it's resorts, you usually have night shifts. (Bethany worked at DisneyQuest and had kind of mid day shifts which made it even more confusing.) Naturally if someone has a completely opposite kind of work schedule as you, you don't see them nearly as often as someone who has the same kind of shifts. I grew extremely close to Liz, mainly because we had similar bad sleeping habits and stayed up super late together all the time. We also had the same kinds of night shifts, similar enough for her to drive me to work every once in a while. I definitely hung out with her the most throughout the program...I think even more than Sara (my best friend from home who came with me).

Every once in a while there were special circumstances in which we would have the same days off, so we would take that opportunity to hang out together. I took a class with Bethany, which was every Wednesday morning at 8 am (ick), so I got to see her at least once a week. Sometimes if I got switched to have a few morning shifts, I'd be able to see Sarah and hang with her every once in a while.

But honestly what happens is you make new friends who have similar schedules as you. Everyone that I lived with started making friends with their co-workers, which is great! I was friends with my co-workers, but we didn't necessarily hang out outside of work all that much. I mainly became close friends with people that I had met on Facebook or Tumblr before the program started. I would a lot of times introduce those friends to Sara and Liz (the two roommates I hung out with the most), and then we'd all be friends and hang out whenever we could.

Bethany and me at graduation!

Things started to kind of change when applications for extending your program starting rolling around. Briana, Liz, and Sarah all applied to stay throughout the summer (instead of leave at the end of May like I did). Bethany actually applied to leave a week early for Summer classes. Briana and Liz got accepted, but Sarah didn't and decided to go seasonal during the summer. When you extend, you have to change apartments if you don't have all of your roommates extending with you. The original move out date was June 1st for Liz and Bri extending, but Bri actually requested to move out earlier so she could move in with some friends she had made during the program. It was a little random, especially since it wasn't really in her plan to tell us that she was moving out nearly three weeks early. We found out from Bethany, who was her direct roommate in our apartment. When the time came for her to move...she just left. Didn't give us a warning and didn't say goodbye. She's still in Patterson, and Sara saw her at the bus stop every once in a while, but that's really it.

I got to hang with Bethany a little more as time went on, thankfully. I really wish our work schedules had allowed us to hang more. We went to DisneyQuest together, which was pretty cool. Definitely something to check out if you like video games. Anyway, she left a week early which was really sad. I got to see Sarah a little more as the program was starting to end as well, which was nice. Liz and Sarah drove with me and Sara to the airport to say goodbye, which was really sad.

Overall the thing to remember about roommates is, you're all different people with different work schedules and different personalities. You could get along really well beforehand on Facebook, and then never really stay friends in real life. The opposite could happen to, where you don't talk to them beforehand but become close during the program. Both instances happened to me during my program. You just have to be prepared for anything!

My Bucket List: Meet All Disney Princesses

Way back in October before I even started the DCP, I posted an entire bucket list that I wanted to do during my program. Throughout the five months that I was in Florida, I actually managed to do the majority of the activities I had listed! I deleted and added some at some points in time, but otherwise it was very similar to the original. 

I'm going to make a post for each of the bucket list items I completed, starting with the first: Meeting all the Disney princesses!

Snow White

I actually met Snow three times during my program. The first time was during my birthday, where I also got to meet Snow Prince and Dopey! The second time I filmed a short little clip wishing my mom a happy birthday, and the third time I was dressed in my Halloween Disneybound outfit! My favorite time that I met her was definitely on my birthday, because we talked about more things and Dopey just made the entire experience fun. Snow is seriously adorable though, and she's definitely one of my favorite Disney princesses!

Cinderella

Since Cinderella is in Town Square Theater for meet and greets, I got to see her quite a few times. Personally, I find her kind of boring...except for one time before Easter when I met her she asked if my friends and I wanted to go to the ball so we could meet all the available princes. She'd have her fairy godmother make dresses for us and everything! I do love her new dress though. It's seriously gorgeous.

Aurora

Aurora honestly surprised me each time I met her. I was expecting it to be a little boring like when I'd meet Cindy, but each time I met her we had nice conversations that weren't awkward at all. She was actually one of my favorites to meet on my birthday. She also let me take a greeting video of her saying hi to my best friend from back home since she's her favorite princess. The last time I met her, she was wearing her new dress. I ADORE it!! It's SO much better than the old clunky one she had (like in the picture above.) I also got to meet Phillip during my birthday the first time I met Aurora. He didn't say much, but it was pretty neat.

Ariel

Ariel was actually the very first princess that I met! I met her twice. The first time was a little awkward because I hadn't met a face character since I was really really little..and even back then I was scared of them. Ariel told me she liked the bow in my hair, and I asked where she got her flower in her hair. She just told me she picked it somewhere in the ocean...exciting story, I know. The second time Ariel asked where we were all from and if we were sisters. We told her we were roommates and from all over the country. That's really it! Nothing too exciting with her, unfortunately.

Belle

I got to meet Belle twice! The first time was actually during her new attraction: Enchanted Tales with Belle. My friends kind of forced me to be in the show, so I was a dancing pepper shaker. When I went to take a picture with her we didn't get to really talk except for her thanking me to be in her show. The second time we met her I filmed the second half of my birthday message to my mom. She was so sweet! She also talked to my best friend Lizzie about Lizzie's favorite ride, The Haunted Mansion. They talked about how she always got scared when the heads popped up behind the gravestones, and Beast had to protect her because he's extremely brave. She was adorable!

Jasmine

The first time I met Jasmine, I was honestly disappointed. She was kind of rude to Lizzie when she asked if she could take a picture on her phone with just the two of them (a selfie, to be exact). Jasmine kept telling her to have me take the picture...which kind of ruins the point of a selfie. At one point Aladdin was even like, "Jasmine is confused." We ended up just taking a group photo. The second time we met Jasmine was MUCH better. We were all in our Disneybound outfits and she had each of us pose like our princesses. It was really fun!

Pocahontas

Pocahontas was so cool! She took my friend Jake by the arm when she was walking him from the line to her meeting spot, and told him he had a strong name. When I met her she asked if I had any adventures in mind, and if she would like to join her and Meeko when they go jump off waterfalls together. She also asked if Sara had raccoon treats in her backpack! She was just a lot of fun and definitely one of my favorites!

Mulan

Mulan was so cute! When I met her I was wearing my purse that goes across my body, making it kind of look like a satchel. She asked me if I was using the bag to prepare for battle, and honestly I kinda froze and answered, "Maybe?" I was awkward...but she thankfully played along and didn't say anything about my mediocre answer. One thing I recommend for you guys if you ever meet characters: don't be afraid to play along and pretend with them! It makes it so much more fun! I learned that later on during my program.

Tiana

I adore Tiana! She was one of my favorites to meet on my birthday, mainly because Naveen was there! I talked about the experience I had when I met Naveen for the first time, and how he recognized me from buying Dole Whip from me at the Polynesian. I met them a second time and he remembered me again! Turns out, his "friend" was doing the college program. Who would've thought? Tiana is such a sweetheart though. She asked me about what kind of seafood recipes she should know about that I serve at work...but it was awkward because we don't really serve seafood excpet for mahi mahi...(which I couldn't remember at the time). But she still played along and made everything really fun.

Rapunzel

Rapunzel is so adorable! First time I met her was again on my birthday...but Flynn Rider was there!! I was honestly more excited to meet him, but when I went up to meet the two of them Rapunzel was the one that talked the most. Mainly because it was my birthday and birthdays are her favorite. I think I met her around three times...can't quite remember. She was fun each time we met though, and got really excited when one of my friends was her for our Disneybound day!

Merida

It took us FOREVER to finally meet Merida! Her line is always so long! However, after we watched her coronation one morning, we decided it was a necessity to make a trip to Magic Kingdom with the sole purpose of meeting Merida. She was hilarious! I asked her what it was like to be an official Disney princess, and she said, "Spectacular! It's exactly how it was before, except now you can call me an official Disney princess." She also asked if Sara could teach her how to curtsy, which was really funny! I have it all on video and I plan on including it in a Magic Kingdom vlog sometime in the near future.

After meeting Merida, I had officially met every single Disney princess! Character hunting is seriously one of the most fun experiences you can do in the Disney parks, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who doesn't feel like going on rides all the time! Every character meet and greet is different, even if you've already met a character before!

If you want to follow my DCP story, be sure to subscribe, and also follow on Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook!

Time for an Epcot Vlog!

Yesterday on my full day of traveling home from the DCP (I'll explain more later), I was able to edit some of my video blogs on the plane! I filmed this at the beginning of May right after we had our graduation. It was one of my best friend's last week with us and she had never seen Illuminations, so we decided to go to Epcot for the afternoon. Enjoy!

I have other videos in the process of being edited for everyone :) Right now I'm just slowly trying to get used to being home again...even though sometimes I catch myself calling Florida "home" when I explain things to my friends. It's certainly been an incredible adventure!

I hope everyone has a magical weekend!