This isn’t the End…

So to FINALLY finish up my blog post from Fall ’14 DCP…

After celebration I only had 3 weeks left of the DCP so I had to get to work if I wanted to finish everything I wanted to and hang out with my friends as much as I could.

I got my 3rd 4 keys card (and a candy bar!) for having helped my (favorite) lead, Bri, with trash duties when one of my coworkers wasn’t doing her job. She told me I was ‘truly an amazing Cast Member’ :’) that compliment made my whole DCP. That night my managers gave us cookies and hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream to show the custodial crew appreciation 🙂

Like I’ve said before, the DCP gets amazing opportunities, such as tours, and one of the tours is a Haunted Mansion walk-through… unfortunately my friends and I didn’t get to attend this tour. However… being custodial I make friends with all the cast members, especially the ones I see a lot (ahem.. the west side), sooo one of my ghostly friends I made at Haunted Mansion offered to give my friends and I a walk through tour of the attraction. A private tour! Just the 3 of us and him. It was such an special experience to get to have something that exclusive with my closest friends. I got to touch the velvet walls, see the animatronics up close, and even walk inside the Ball Room!! I will never forget this night ❤

The next day I had a park day with my best friends and we all accidentally matched! We only got to hang out in the park for a few hours but had fun going on the Mark Twain and making a wish in Snow White’s Wishing well #bucketlist Then I got to work with Jessica in New Orleans and Sarena brought us tacos for lunch!

I received my 4th 4 keys card from one of my favorite leads, Sara, while I was working on Main Street one night:)

One of my favorite experiences was being invited to shadow a Disney Fairy tale Wedding!
For my Corporate Analysis class that I had to take in the DCP I did my project and paper on this topic as it really sparked an interest. So when I heard there was an opportunity to have lunch with the Profession Intern for the weddings, I took it! …and I was the only one who showed up. I got a lot of one on one time with her and chatted. She saw how intrested I was and invited me to shadow her at an actual wedding. The Disneyland Resort has 2 different types of weddings, a small estoption and large option. The one I got to shadow was the smaller one with only a guest list of 20! I know, super duper small, right!? But it was still so beautiful and magical so I was so fortunate to be able to see how it all works. It was at the Grand Californian Hotel outside on the patio followed by the reception in a intimate room. The room was so nicely decorated and they even had a Disney Vinlymation theme, my favorite! I’m so grateful for this opportunity and I hope to be able to do this again in the future! I can definitely see myself working for the Disney Fairy Tale Weddings as a career!

Disney makes magic not only for the guests, but also for the Cast Members! One thing that Disney did for us for Christmas was a meet and greet with some characters backstage! I got a picture with Pluto as I was coming into work and then I headed off to do my job in New Orleans. When I went on lunch I found Goofy back stage and so I took a picture with him and gave him a kiss. Michael, the character host, said we looked cute together so I mustered up the courage to ask Goofy to be my boyfriend and he blushed and accepted… But then Michael got sad and said I beat him to it and he was jealous of Goofy… So we were in an awkward love triangle… So the two of them decided to fight over me and Goofy ended up winning ❤ I love my life.

I really wanted to get some more bucket list things done before leaving, so I went into the parks with Sarena and Laura one day and we decided to ask to Pilot the Mark Twain… and they said yes! So we got to go up to the very tip top and actually steer the boat. It was one of the coolest things I got to do as a guest and we each got to sign the guest book and receive a certificate!

  

It was our friend Chris’ birthday so my custodial friends and I decided to go play in the park to celebrate! We all got so close the last few months so it was also kinda like our one last time all hanging out. It was a really fun night but kind of a sad moment to think that we weren’t gonna see eachother again for a while.

The Christmas Season was a lot different this year. My friends and I didn’t have our families with us to spend time with. But that didn’t stop us from having a magical time. One of my custodial friends, Lucero, was kind enough to offer me, Sarena, and Jessica a Christmas tree to decorate. It was such a surprising and kind jester that I’ll for sure remember! Not only was she sweet enough to let us borrow the tree, but she gave us some snacks and a JcPennys gift card. Thank you again, Lucero!

So on Christmas Eve, my best friends and I had an awesome sleepover! We decorated the tree, hand made enchiladas, baked cookies, drank hot chocolate, made friendship bracelets and watched a movie. We didn’t do a gift exchange but I wanted to give my friends something that I had previously painted before the program even started. I made Disney-friend themed canvases and I couldn’t imagine them going to anyone else, so I wrapped them up and gave it to them. Sarena likes Toy Story and Jessica loves Monsters Inc. so it worked out perfectly. Let’s just say this brought a lot of tears. It was hard realizing that this would be one of the last moments with all three of us together. It was probably my favorite and best Christmas Eve ever.

Then on Christmas morning my family came!! My mom and brother arrived early in the morning, we went to church together and then headed over to California Adventure. We got a reservation at Ariel’s Grotto and we were sooo excited to finally eat there for the first time! The food was delicious and it was so much fun getting to meet all the princesses! I had to work that night so I took my family back to the airport… it was a short trip, but a very nice time getting to see them on Christmas. At least we were together.

After spending the day with my real family, I got to spend the night working with my custodial family! It was really nice being able to work in the happiest place on earth on Christmas. I’m so grateful for my custodial family and that I got to be with them in the same area that night. We even had a Christmas dinner together haha!

Since Disneyland experiences a high volume of guests around Christmas and New Years, we were asked if we wanted to extend our shifts to 10 hours… so to keep it interesting, we said yes. Why not? I mean we were leaving in less than a week now anyways so we might as well. We had out first 10 hour shift… it was hard… but it was so much fun! Plus we got to sing and dance to Fantasmic; Sarena’s and my favorite!

The first picture was suppose to say “First 10 hour shift, we’re not ready…”

A older, Mexican, custodial co-worker of mine named Mike reminds me of my dad by the way he talks and acts. So one day I decided to tell him that and it meant more to him then I realized. We both got really emotional and it was one of the sweetest moments there. That was the one and only time I’ve ever cried on stage (oops). And ever since then, he has been so happy to see me and told me “There are big gifts, and there are small, but your friendship beats them all. I really mean that. You telling me that I remind you of your dad really got to me and made me speechless, and I’m never speechless. It was the best gift anyone could give to me.” He told me how that was the best gift ever and how it really impacted him. I couldn’t believe that it would touch him so much but it made me so glad that I told him! Tell people how you feel because it might just make them happier then you can even imagine.

So one night my best friends and I decided to cook a meal together… so we went to the store and got the ingredients for Breakfast for Dinner! It was so much fun spending time with them in the kitchen and making something together.

Afterwards we were gonna watch a movie but then we all realized we just wanted to go out on an adventure… it was 11pm. Haha! We came up with the idea to go star gaze! So we tried to get up on the roof of our apartment… but the door was locked. So we had to think of another idea. Griffith Park Observatory in LA was closed, so that couldn’t work. Was there a lake near by? Oh. My. Gosh… we live in California… I forgot there was a beach 25 minutes away!! So we got in the car a headed to Newport Beach. It was midnight and we were on a beach. Yay for spontaneous ideas! We put our towels down and looked up. It was so beautiful. The sky so black, the stars so clear. We ended up making lots of snap chat videos and taking pictures. We laughed so much that we cried. So many memories that night. We decided it was time to go. I looked down at my phone and it was 1 am!! Did we really stay that long?! I guess time flies when you’re adventuring.

 

I tried to make sure I got to spend some time with each of my friends before I had to leave, so Randi and I decided to go on a picnic at the park! The only problem… we didn’t bother to go outside to look at the weather and it was about to rain. Oops. So we have our lunch all packed and no where to go. So we decided to go to the movies! Yes, we ate our picnic in the theater. Yolo.

Being in the Disney College Program you don’t only make friends with other programmers, but also your coworkers in your department. But I had no idea that I’d become so close to some of them. Jasmine became one of my really good friends while I was there. So we had to hang out one last time before I left… and we decided to go ice skating! Neither of us are very good at it, but that’s what made it so fun. Surprisingly we didn’t fall once… too bad though because the guy was cute hahah

I got to celebrate New Years Eve at the biggest party with 100,000 (i don’t know the actual number haha) of my closest friends… Disneyland! I actually really enjoyed working New Years Eve; it was one of my favorite shifts ever. I’ve been there twice on New Years Eve… once when I was 7 and another time when I was 16. But this experience was much different. And even better in my opinion. I mean, what else was I suppose to do for New Years Eve this year? All my friends were working/wanted to work and I was blocked out of Disneyland as a guest. So the only way I could get in was by working haha. And I’m sooo glad I did. My friends and I traded a couple of our shifts around so we could make sure we worked in the same area and closed the park together. So I was surrounded by my favorite people in our favorite place, New Orleans.

Going to work and Sarena brought in cupcakes for everyone!

Last picture of 2014 and first picture of 2015

A few weeks after this I actually randomly started posting a message on Sarena’s facebook wall for fun and it accidentally turned into our New Years Eve story haha. This is what it said:)

So that’s pretty much all that happened. It was a great night:)

Then it came down to my last shift… the part that was so bitter sweet. I didn’t want to leave. I opened up my packet that morning that I received for “earning my ears” aka passing probation (which is your first 4 months with the company). And that’s when it finally hit me. I cried like a baby. It was extremely hard to wrap my mind around the fact that it was over. It seemed surreal. The thing that I was thrown into and did for 4.5 months straight has finally come to an end. I was a weird feeling. But I knew it wasn’t the end. I knew that being there, working, learning, and meeting all those people made it clear to me that Disney is where I’m meant to be.

It’s been the best experience I’ve ever done and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

I spent my very last day as a Cast Member running around the park with Sarena saying “see you later” to our custodial friends and our home (aka Disneyland).

I gave my fav lead, Bri, my flashlight and wrote on it, “Baby, you light up my world like no body else” because one of the first times I worked with her I said this dumb joke “Is that a flash light in my pocket or am I just happy to see you” and she cracked up… so I felt that it was necessary to give her my flashlight as a special way to remember me haha.

The next day I spent all day packing up my apartment. I think I got 2.5 hours of sleep that night because we had to be totally moved out by 9 am the next morning. It was an emotional day as I saw my home competently empty for the first time and drove away in tears. It was a hard drive home, but I knew I’d soon be back and that’s what made it bearable.

Here’s a few of favorite Facebook post from the end of my program.

Celebration

For anyone who doesn’t want to know what happens during Celebration, there will be some spoilers…

With a little more than 3 weeks left in the DCP, we were invited to attend a formal party celebrating our program, our hard-work, the friends we’ve made, and finally Earning our Ears! They held it in the Paradise Pier hotel, one of the hotels on the Disneyland property.

We all had the night off from work, so once we got all dressed up and ready, my friends and I headed over to Celebration. Randi and I drove together and I don’t really know why, but one of my favorite memories was that car ride over. We were singing and dancing and it pumped us both up… I think Randi is my favorite friend to ugly sing and dance with. Love you Randi, it’s always hilarious times with you! Honestly wish I would have recorded it.

Once we got there we checked in and received a gift! We got an adorable little black leather memory box that says Disney Professional Internships & Programs that had a place for a picture on the cover. And to make it even more magical, we received our graduation ears! My friends Sarena, Randi, James, Laura, and I grabbed a table but it wasn’t quite time for dinner yet, so we mingled and took some pictures before our meal was ready.


 

My baby Diggle Hopper!

Dinner was really good! I think it was chicken and potatoes or something, but whatever it was I’m sad that I didn’t even get to finish it all haha because the Photo Booth opened and everyone rushed over there! My friends and I didn’t want to stand in line for too long so we decided to run over there too. The dance floor opened and I was there! You didn’t need to ask me twice!

My favorite custodians!

We danced a little, but as soon as we started, our boss decided to make a special appearance! Mickey came out in a cap and gown to congratulate us and take pictures. This time the line was HUGE. It was nice to get a picture with him, but it took at least an hour to get through the line which was really sucky because I feel like a lot of our party time was wasted just waiting. At least I got to stand in line with my friends so we made the most of it.

After we snapped a few pictures with the boss man, we danced some more… and it seemed like people kept going home little by little, but we stayed till the very end. We got some more photo booth pictures and meet Goofy too! The night started winding down and before we knew it… it was over. It ended on a strong note with some good ol’ Disney songs… our fav.

Awkward dancing with Alex… YAS!

We all circled up for Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'”

We headed home but weren’t ready to call it a night. So James, Sarena and I decided to have a small after party. We invited a few people over and had fun laughing and playing games.

I’ll always be your Jiminy Cricket Alex!

“Let’s take selfies with the Christmas tree” Sarena

If you would have told me a year ago, or even at the start of the program that I’d have friends that would change my life or that these goofs would become my best friends, I wouldn’t have believed you. This Disney College Program has been the best thing in my life and I have these guys to thank for all the memories and for making these few months what they’ve been.

Nearing the end…

Making the most of what was left of the DCP involved A LOT of “squeezing things in” each day! I wish I would have spaced things out a little bit more because I found myself trying to cross everything off my bucket list once December rolled around. I finally realized I had a ton-more stuff I wanted to do and very little time to do it.

December 1st was our Sleeping Beauty Castle Picture! Anyone in the DCP who wanted a memorable photo of them self surrounded by their fellow CPs was welcome to go. Not everyone ended up going though since it was at 7am before the park opened. I mean- that’s early if you worked a full week and had an long shift the previous day… but to me, it was worth it!

Then I spent the rest of the day in the park with my friend, Chris, being touristy!

At the beginning of December I received this Candy-gram from my friend James! It was so sweet of him to think of me and I wanted to return the thoughtfulness, but I think they only offered them for a week or so and I didn’t know that BUT THANK YOU JAMES haha

A couple days later I decided to go to the park to do some more bucket list things, but I couldn’t find any of my friends to go with. That’s the nice thing about the DCP though- you live in the same apartment complex as everyone else in the program… plus you’re already Facebook friends with most of them. So what did I do? I messaged one of my Facebook friends that I’ve been meaning to get to know (sadly I waited until the last month!). Turns out Emily and Jennifer were literately my neighbors haha! So the 3 of headed over to Disney and one of the things that we did was ride in the Caboose of the train for the first time!

When the day was over and the park was about to close we headed over to California Adventure for yet another event! This time we got to tour Soarin’ Over California. First we rode it and then we got to go BEHIND the screen! To my surprise, the screen is metal and has small little holes in it! I even touched it… shh! Haha. They let us smell the beads of the 2 scents they use- oranges and pine. Oh my gosh, if Disney was to sell those beads in the parks, they’re sell like HOT CAKES! The tour guide rattled off a lot of (really cool) facts about the attraction, but I honestly can’t remember them. I know he was saying that one(?) of the clips was kinda fake… like it was photo-shopped. I think it was the one with the hand glider. The person is really hand gliding, just not in the location that they show him in. Another interesting fact is that in one of the clips there’s a guy just chillin’ up on a mountain just so he could be in the video because he heard they were filming that day… he was waiting there for HOURS! And the snowboarder who falls, really does fall! haha. There’s also a Hidden Mickey in the film, and no, not the one at the end. I’ll give you a hint- it’s during the golf course clip. The fact that was mind blowing to me though was learning how much they spend on film and how quickly they go through it! I think they said something along the lines of each roll of film costing $10,000 and it lasting 30-60 days… times 2 since they have 2 theaters! Shesh!! The film gets worn out because it’s constantly being played. That’s why the attraction is currently being refurbished- so they can switch to digital! Now I know why the ticket prices are so expensive haha! So make sure you go on Soarin’ over California so you can make the most of your park admission!!

Here’s a Facebook status I posted:) What a beautiful night! I think that was the first time I stood between the tree and the castle on the middle of Main Street… if you haven’t stood there during the Lighting Ceremony/Fireworks, I definitely recommend it!

My friend, Katie, from high school & college decided to take a spontaneous trip to Disneyland with her two friends, so since my plans got cancelled I decided to spend the day with them. I’m so happy I did because they were so sweet and they really cheered me up! Katie is a DCP alumni so it was fun being able to talk to her- sharing our experiences and memories.

Sarena and I realized we never spent a whole day together just us two… so this called for a BEST FRIEND DATE! We went to the movies and saw Mocking Jay, did some shopping for the Celebration party the following night, ate at Buffalo Wild Wings and then headed to Disneyland (duh!). So as we were driving there, we feel a thud so Sarena pulls over and it turns out she got a flat tire… thankfully we were right in front of a donut shop! …I mean- thankfully we were in a good area! Haha 😉 so we call AAA and we know it’s gonna be a little while so while we’re waiting we thought it was necessary to get a donut… I mean it was the nice thing to do since we were parked right in front of the shop. We were just trying to be courteous… since they were staring at us. The donuts, not the people. That would be rude.

Oh, and Sarena had window markers in her car so we figured out another way to pass the time!

We finally got to Disneyland… with 30 minutes before park close- but that’s plenty of time! We were the last ones on Pirates (Sarena’s tradition that I was honored to be apart of) and then spent the rest of our time on Main Street as we took a gazillion pictures with the Castle and the Christmas tree… that’s what people do on their day off, right? Oh, and bugged our favorite custodial co-workers a little too! Another necessity.

Here’s a selfie we took this fun couple that we started talking to on Main Street. When we asked if we could get a picture with them they replied, “only if you put it on Instagram!” haha

Sarena and I also found this half-and-half light bulb at Coke Corner that one of our leads told me about. When Walt put the light bulbs in he didn’t want a odd number of white and red bulbs, so he made one BOTH!

This day was one of my favorites, but to top it all off… Sarena and I decided to take advantage of the empty park and so we just started to dance. We were at Rapunzel’s tower watching her hair glow and there was just something about being there alone that was magical. These are the nights I miss.

The next day was Celebration! But I think I’ll just make a new post just about that since it was a very fun and eventful evening!

November- part 2 ,

My first half of November was pretty eventful and so was my second half! It was too hard to condense it all into one blog so that’s why I split it up 🙂 Anyways, here’s what I was up to the second half of November!

My nieces Isa, Jaema, her husband and family came for the Avengers Marathon so I had a wonderful time visiting with them and playing in the parks! They treated me to lunch and we got to ride a few rides before I had to go to work. The next day we met up again for a couple of hours before my shift and while we were riding Space Mountain, the ride stopped! So we got to see it with the lights on and even got to ride it again without getting off!

My friend, Vivian, and I decided to check something off our bucket-list and go to a Disney Character Audition! We weren’t just going for fun though, we actually would have loved to have gotten into Entertainment! Unfortunately, I looked at the description details the night before and found out it was just for Frozen Characters (and neither of us look like Anna or Elsa haha!). But we decided to go anyways for the experience and fun of it. Plus we heard that if they like your look they do actually consider casting you for a different character (too bad they don’t have Pocahontas as a ‘meet and greet character’ out on the regular!!) So we woke up at the crack of dawn, drove to Burbank, and waited in line for a little over an hour… just to get about 4 seconds of audition time each. Haha it was slightly annoying to be turned away so quickly but it was a fun day at the very least! Since neither of us really ate yet we decided to grab a bite to eat at the mall before going back to Anaheim (we would have stayed a little longer if it wasn’t for the fact that I had work that afternoon). After brunch we decided to take one last stop before we headed home. We went to Griffith park, the park where Walt sat and watched his daughters on the merry-go-round and thought up the idea of making a family-friendly amusement park for people of all ages! They didn’t have the bench there anymore where Walt use to sit but we talked to the man who owns the merry-go-round and he said they were getting a bench in memory of Walt and they’d have a ceremony in which his family would attend! He (informally) invited us and of course we wanted to go, but we looked the event up on the internet and it said you had to have a ticket because it was a members-only kind of event:/

This picture was actually taken in January when I went to the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, but they had one of the actual benches from Griffith Park there so I just wanted to share it!

November 18th is well known for Mickey and Minnie’s birthday, but it’s also coincidentally my dad’s birthday! I was so excited to be in the DCP during this time so I could go celebrate in the park. But not only was that day hard on me since I was missing my dad (who had passed away), but it was hard because I couldn’t go to Disneyland since I strictly had to spend the whole day working on a paper for class. Hopefully I’ll be able to celebrate their birthdays in the park another year!

One of my favorite working memories was because of such as small event that happened, but it left my heart so happy and it happened with one of my best friends, Jessica. Being that we’re custodial we get to sweep and roam our area freely… well, one evening I came into work in Adventure/Frontier land and Jessica was already there the whole day so she was about to leave in an hour or two. I think I was having a bummy day but when you’re at Disneyland, you can make one of the worst days into the best… plus I think I had a cup of coffee right before work haha so that was probably also to blame! So I was super hyper and excited to be working that night and one of the things that we’re able to do is sweep the boats (the Mark Twain and the Columbia)! The cool thing about this is, we get to ride on them while we do this since you can’t obviously sweep it all in the amount of time it takes to load guests on/off the boat. Usually it’s only suppose to be 1 person sweeping it, but the area was clean so I talked Jessica into both of us going on and sweeping it. Honestly, I think this was my first time riding the Columbia… ever. So being able to ride it, with my best friend, while we were getting paid, as I was hyper off coffee was a fun experience haha! I think I had an imaginary sword fight with a little boy and shared a few pirate jokes back and forth with him and once he got preoccupied as we started sailing off, Jessica and I decided to wave to all the guests down by the river. We had so much fun laughing and joking as we past by all the guests. There was this little boy eating at Hungry Bear restaurant who I pointed to and waved at to make him feel special and as soon as I did that, his face lit up and he pointed and waved back- it was adorable! Once the boat docked, Jessica had to finish up so she could clock out but she decided to stick around as a guest for the evening and came back to visit me as I was working! That night I got to be a responder for the first time (for Indiana Jones)! A responder is when you have a radio and you take care of a specific (large) attraction; dumping trash, sweeping the line, and keeping your ear out for any codes being called. What a great shift and a great night!

A few days later I had amazing night in Adventure/Frontier land with BOTH of my custodial friends, Sarena and Jessica. I think this shift was honestly one of the reasons they became my best friends and was the start of our real bond. We had so much fun singing, dancing, and reenacting Fantasmic backstage on the balcony and other Cast Members even stopped to watch us hahah. I never really paid attention to Fantasmic until this night. Sarena’s love for the show (and the princesses specifically haha) rubbed off on me for sure! After Fantasmic Sarena told us that the best place to watch the fireworks was on that balcony backstage, so once again, we went up there to enjoy those as well. One of the best shifts ever!

I got to tour the Tower of Terror!! Talk about thrilling! We got to learn all about the attraction and the story that goes behind it. Our tour guide was excellent and pointed out some really cool facts! If you ever get the chance to go on the ride with me I’ll tell you some sweet stuff I learnt! It was pretty nice though because you have to sign up for these events (and not everyone can since there’s a limited number of spots) and I didn’t get a spot- I was on the wait list. But I decided to go anyways, just in case someone didn’t show up, and I ended up getting the last spot! (Glad that person decided to sleep in! haha) We not only got a tour, but we got to ride the ride; once normal and once with the sound and lights completely off. It was terrifying and exhilarating! I love Tour of Terror but, the suspension just about killed me… but it was exciting!
   

Another one of the events that the DCP provided us was a Thanksgiving Dinner! They knew that we couldn’t be home with our families so they decided to cater Thanksgiving food and put on a dinner party for us. The meal was delicious and it was a really fun evening being able to chat with friends. I even met new people and talk to people I’ve never talked to before. I know the Disneyland CP is small (300 residents in the provided housing), but I STILL managed to meet new people at each event! It’s crazy how I didn’t even know some of my fellow CPs by the end of the program… and I was someone who was extremely social haha!

The three of us custodians matched on accident! #burgundyforever

I’ve never been in Disneyland for “rope-drop” (one of the first people in the park), so my friend Ashley and I decided to get up super early and go so we could mark that off my bucket-list, as well as some other miscellaneous things. So that day I got to be there for rope drop, took an awesome picture in front of the castle, got to meet and greet the Frozen characters, and the Big Hero 6 characters. Rope drop was actually pretty lame 😦 Someone told me once that they play a recording of Walt’s opening day speech over the speakers, but all it was was a pile of people waiting in front the Partners statue for the Cast Members to “drop the rope” to give them the ‘ok’ that the park is now officially open. No Walt Disney speech 😦 As soon as they dropped the rope, Ashley and I RAN through the castle to get in line for a fastpass for the Frozen meet and greet. The park opened at 8am, we got our fastpasses at 8:15am and we were one of the last ones to receive one (and there were still guests behind us)! It’s crazy how quick they sold out… not everyone gets one and sometimes that’s the biggest reason why little girls want to visit Disneyland! Our fastpass told us to come back at 7:30pm that night so we decided to go do a couple things in the park, go home and then come back. When we came back I got to visit my best friends working in Fantasyland that night for a little while!

After we meet Anna and Elsa and chatted with Jessica and Sarena, Ashley and I headed over to Mad Tea (for my first time!) It was really fun; why did I wait so long to go?! It was one of the last night of Mad Tea (since they were replacing it with Freeze the Night), so it was really emotional for Alice, the Mad Hatter and the gang, along with all the die-hard T-party fans. I’m glad I got to check it out before it left!

When I went back to the apartment earlier that day what I actually had planned was a networking event. The DCP has an event every once in a while called Talking over Tacos where you get to eat lunch and chat with a professional intern from various roles through-out the company. This day in particular was with the professional intern for the Catered Events and Fairytale Weddings! The spots were all filled up for the Fairytale Wedding walk-through happening in a few weeks so I thought for sure there would be a large handful of girls there wanting to talk to the intern. Nope. Just me. I was the only one! Kinda crazy because I didn’t even get signed into the event- I was wait listed… and here I was; the only one wanting to chat with her! It was awesome though since we got to chat one-on-one. We both talked about our lives and how we got to where we are today. She told me about the Disney Fairytale Weddings and what her job entailed specifically. I told her how I was really bummed that I didn’t even get into the event (that was happening in a few weeks) and how I did my whole research project and presentation on the Disney Fairytale Weddings for my class. She was very excited to see my interest and said she’d talk to her boss and see if she could squeeze me. She even told me that if I liked the walk-though, I was invited to shadow a real Disney Fairy Wedding! OMG! What!? That’s awesome! I was stoked… see, this is what people miss out on when they don’t show up to networking events!!

Here’s a picture of the intern Keli, me, and BK (the CP intern)

My mom and brother flew out on Thanksgiving for the day to spend time with me! We went to Pizza Press first and then headed over to Disneyland to have some fun! I got to cross one of my bucket-list items off as we rode in the very from of the monorail and then made some magic for a little birthday boy and his family by giving them our seats after we rode up front for a little while. Christmas festivities started early at Disney as they had the Viva Navidad celebration in California Adventure. The 3 caballeros were out for a meet and greet and so after we took a picture, I started to dance and shake my tail feathers with them!

    

Disneyland was getting a new system for Fantasmic and they needed to inform Cast Members of it, so they had a Fantasmic Expo backstage and I got to work it! And by ‘work it’ I was told to just take out the trash whenever it was needed… which wasn’t very often. So while I kept my eye on that, I decided to spend my time helping Main Street as well! Fortunately one of my good friends, Randi, was working so it was really fun! I helped her with trash and she even gave me a four-keys card for helping her! The Expo included information telling us how the fastpass system worked, but also gave us the opportunity to sample some of the food options: corn chowder and a piece of Ghirardelli dark chocolate. AND the best part was being able to take cool pictures in front of a green screen with the Fantasmic dragon photo-shopped in it! I worked the expo for 8 hours so I got 8 pictures taken hahaha! I get paid to do this!?

Before Mad Tea was gone, I went one more time for the last night! I meet up with Ashley and Deborah and our other Brazilian friends! We danced and sang and had, well… a ‘mad’ time!

Here are some statuses I posted:)

November (or at least the first half)

I wish I could have kept up with my blogging but, honestly, there wasn’t enough time in my short program. It was nearly impossible to take advantage of all the opportunities, work, get enough sleep, make friends/spend time with friends AND write down all my experiences especially while dealing with some of my own personal struggles. I told myself that I wanted to blog, not only keep my friends and family updated, but to also remember all of the experiences I had. I’m not going to lie, with so many things jam-packed into 4 and a half months, I think I’m already starting to forget some (minor, but special) memories that made me laugh, cry, proud, grateful, and humbled while in my Disney College Program. While it was important to me to write about these memories, I realized that in my last 2 months I was going to have to make a decision; to either continue blogging about my program or to live it out to the fullest. If you can do both, congrats! I, on the other hand, felt like I had to choose in order to do what I truly came into this program for. And I’m so glad I choose the opportunities option because if not, I would have really missed out on either a lot of sleep or a lot of amazing memories with my best friends. In fact, we wouldn’t have even became as close as we did if it wasn’t for taking those adventures and wonderful moments that we felt impelled to do because of the program. So without further ado, here’s my attempt to remember everything that happened in November. Or at least the first half of November as I realize alottttt happened. Way too much to put into one post.

Surprisingly, I never actually sat (and camped out) in front of the castle to watch the fireworks… or at least not within the second part of my lifetime, but since the “Remember… Dreams Come True” firework show was retiring (for 10 years) I thought now was the perfect time to do something I’ve never done. And man, was that show phenomenal! I went with my friend and sat there, front row seats, surrounded by other cast members waiting an hour to see the last fireworks. Cast members really weren’t lying when they said that was the best viewing area. We got to see projections on the castle with no trees or buildings in our way. All the fireworks were centered and it was just a magical experience. After that I can truly suggest that spot to guests as prime viewing area as first-hand experience rather than just saying that because a lead told me to haha!

I got my first 4-keys card! If you don’t know what a 4-keys card is, it’s pretty much a way to recognize other cast members for demonstrating one or more of the four keys (Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency) usually in an extraordinary way. These are usually given by your co-workers since they’re the ones you work with, but if another cast member notices your outstanding behavior, they may give you one too. It’s given to the cast member on an index card-type of paper but also goes on file if you give a copy to your manager. As a cast member, we come into work every day agreeing to meet the requirements of our job, which includes practicing the 4-keys. It’s a-given to do that every day. It’s what’s expected. What managers, leads, guests and even fellow cast members love to see, are those moments when you go above and beyond. That’s what the 4-keys card pretty much congratulates you on. Usually you don’t expect a 4-keys card… hopefully that’s not the reason why you’re doing the amazing things you’re doing. You shouldn’t be looking around for the commendation from others. And I wasn’t expecting one that day. I was doing trash on Main Street on afternoon and I noticed a boy, who seemed to have special needs, inflict self-harm on himself in front of the train station causing quite a bit of attention on the situation. I also noticed 2 cast members over there already as they were taking care of the boy’s needs so I debated with myself if I should go over there and ask if they needed help. It only took me a second to realize that even though they had control over the situation, it was definitely needed to be the guest control. I walked away from my trash duties to ask if I could be of assistance and the lady was so grateful that I had volunteered to help. She kept expressing her gratitude since it really helped her focus more on what needed to be done rather than worry about the guests watching and getting too close. After thanking me several times she asked my name and my manager’s name to which the next day I received my 4-keys card for “setting up a perimeter and going above and beyond.” It felt good to be recognized, but would I have still done it without being recognized? Absolutely! That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to work at Disney!

I got the opportunity to get a tour of the Walt Disney Studios, the corporate headquarters, in Burbank! The studio contains several sound stages, a backlot and other production facilities. I saw and learned so many amazing things there and even got to visit the Disney Archives. I saw where Walt’s office was (well, we saw his window from outside), where they filmed a lot of the TV shows and movies (including Saving Mr. Banks) and we saw a lot of other really cool stuff but I honestly don’t know what to call it all since they rattled off the information so quickly (and quietly) during the tour but here are some pictures 🙂 It was amazing being able to tour the studios though; being able to see where Walt Disney worked and where he and all his cast members created the movies, TV shows, and cartoons we know and love. Pretty much only cast members get the luxury of seeing these kinds of things so I am beyond grateful that I was given the chance to do this!

We’re ready for the tour!

You can see Pluto’s 3 paw prints… ones not there because he was lifting his leg haha
 

Inside the Disney Archives
   
I actually got to hold one of Walt’s Oscars!

I remember this being in a scene of Saving Mr. Banks
 
Walt’s Office

School! I haven’t just been working and playing for the last 4 and a half months! Well… kinda haha. I was also in a Management class called Corporate Analysis and honestly, I really liked it. I mean, we pretty much just learned about the Disney Company so it was better than taking a management class from another source (since I do actually need it for my degree). There was work involved just like any credited class though, so I had my days where I worked on papers for about 24-hours and I wanted to rip my eyes out! Those are the moments I won’t miss, but I did end up getting an A in the class so it all paid off. I also got the opportunity to learn about an amazing amenity that the Disney Company offers, which is Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings through a research project. I was so glad to have chosen this topic and to learn more about it since it’s something that interests me. It gave me the idea of this definitely becoming a potential future career option.

One reason why I loved going to class everyday- my best friend. Sitting next to Jessica to giggle, doddle, and laugh at her notes were my highlights of class. So glad I got to take this course with her!

One of the events offered to us was a screening of Big Hero 6 when it came out. Not only did I get to see that adorable, inflatable, health-care companion on the big screen, but I got to see it for FREE in a theater rented out just for us college programmers in the Downtown Disney AMC. Free means so much to you when you’re broke haha! But I loved watching it while being surrounded by my friends.

Being in California, I wanted to take advantage of what there is to do there, so one night I decided to go to New Port beach with some friends. We went to Club Cantina and since it was my first bar (other than House of Blues- but I don’t count that because it’s open to 18+) I told the bartender that as I was contemplating on what to order. He thought it was cute that I had no idea what I was doing so he decided to get me and my friend a free drink with the small cost of minor embarrassment from the people at the bar. He made the announcement that it was my first time and I thought ‘hey, if that’s all it takes to get a free drink, then I should just do that every time!’ We decided to leave Club Cantina and made our way down the street to another bar and danced a little until we decided we were done. We headed to the pier to see if Ruby’s Diner was still open, and to our disappointment it was already closed at that late hour. Plan 2… we decided that IHOP was the best option for 3 a.m. food runs, so that’s where we ended up.

Since we got to experience alot of what the DCP had to offer by November and had already biases what we liked and what didn’t like, the Disneyland Internships director wanted to meet with us to hear our feedback. We got to attend an event in the apartment courtyard called the Chat and Chew, and honestly, I think a lot of people just went for the free food. I know that’s why I was there haha. But it was actually really cool and I got to hear everyone’s thoughts and opinions about things that they were experiencing in the program. It was amazing how we all were in the same program, living and working in the same place, but had completely different experiences- good and bad. I heard what they all thought needed to be changed and what they liked. I even said a few things here and there as it was actually really cool to be a part of a meeting where what you say matters and could potentially change what the future programs might do differently. After it was over she invited us to take some more food home with us, and being the poor (Disney) college students that we are, my friends and I weren’t shy about it hahah! So here’s a picture of us with no shame as we take plates of (delicious) potato salad home!

My roommate, Christine, had a birthday during the program so of course we had to celebrate it in Disneyland! We had lunch at the Cove Bar and it was really cool. It was my first time there and the view, service, and food was great! We split a huge plate full of chicken nachos and I can still remember how good they were! If you want delicious food for a reasonable price, just order that appetizer and you’ll be satisfied with that choice. We ended up going on a couple rides and meeting a character or two and then we headed home for a relaxed evening. Actually I don’t remember what we were planning on doing. All I remember was our spontaneous idea of having a birthday party that night. It all came together so fast and thank goodness the grocery store was just across the street. My roommates and I ran over to get a couple things. We had some drinks, snacks, cupcakes, laughs, ‘Catch Phrase’ and ‘Cards Against Humanity’ and it was a fun night!

When Disneyland was first being constructed, Walt wanted a place to stay and watch the activity. Plus his home was not extremely close and he wanted a place to rest and spend time with family without leaving the park. Thus, an apartment above the Firehouse was built and I was fortunate enough to get a tour of it! We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside but here’s my group standing underneath the window.

See that lamp in the window? (Well it was a Christmas tree for the holidays but just pretend it’s a lamp haha). That lamps ALWAYS on in memory of Walt Disney after his passing. Contrary to popular belief, it is never turned off. There’s a rumor going around that the lamp is turned off when someone in his family is in the park, but the tour guide told us that’s actually not true being that his family is so big that there’s constantly someone in the park. Plus, they wouldn’t want to broadcast it and display the family’s presence.

Walt in his apartment (I think it looks bigger in the picture)

The apartment was actually smaller than I expected it to be. It’s 500 square-feet being just enough room for a bathroom, a dresser, a tiny kitchenette, and 2 couches that could be transformed into twin beds. It was actually adorable because the couches were “I love Lucy” style with them being separate. Walt had his bed and Lillian had hers; keeping it very conservative. The shower was really interesting, Walt had the idea of constructing a shower with multiple shower heads so the water could spray your body in multiple areas at once, very Hunger Games-esque, from the Capital that is.

A little more than half way through the program, international CP participants from Brazil arrived and we had a Welcome Party/Fall Mixer for them in the court yard of our apartment. We sang and danced, played ice breaker games, and ate pizza! It was a blast to have a reason to party and I think it even brought some of us “American CPs” together that had never even spoken to one another. I love being able to go to an event and meet someone new! I really enjoyed getting to know them all and relaxing from the stressful things happening in my life. I know, working at Disneyland is SOO hard. Haha, I’m not trying to complain, but there were some difficult moments in the program. Anyways, I ended that night with getting slurpies from 7-eleven with my best friend, Sarena, and her Brazilian roommate, Deborah and a couple other friends. After that, we went back to their place to play some games like ‘Sorry’ and ‘Cards Against Humanity’ and had an awesome game night!

  

Red and blue for America and Green and Yellow for Brazil!

I thought this picture was hilarious so I’m just gonna leave this here:

So that was my first half of November… more happened then I thought.
Stay tuned because I’ll be posting the second half of November whenever I find time to type it up haha!

I found these post on my Facebook so I thought I’d share them here so I can remember them:)

Happy Halloween!

I know it’s almost Thanksgiving, but I haven’t blogged in quite a while, so here’s my Halloween post:)

For our mid-program event we had a Halloween Party hosted by the Disney College Program called “Into the Rabbit Hole” (Alice and Wonderland themed). I brought my Pocahontas costume that I made for Comic Con from home, so I was planning on wearing that ever since I heard about the party. However, my friends didn’t know what to wear, and being that I love to help put costumes together, I decided to make it my mission to help them find something!

I went out with Randi to hunt one down and we finally pulled one together at Forever 21 and came up with a hipster Snow White!

I also helped Sarena and after lots of searching, we made her a Wendy Darling costume.

We had so much fun that night taking pictures and dancing crazy! I haven’t danced that much since… I honestly don’t know when haha. A few friends and I literately closed the dance floor and danced all the way up until the last song.

my roommate, Christine dressed as Anna:)

My custodial crew!:)
     

The next day I was so sore and I felt like I got hit by a bus, but it was worth it. Surprisingly I decided to go out dancing again that night and I went to the House of Blues for the first time with my friends. It was definitely an experience I won’t forget because it was 2 days before Halloween and so everyone was dressed up plus it was my first time in a club atmosphere so it got pretty wild. Some guy even came up to me and decided to take me out on the dance floor and spined me a little and then lifted me… it was not expected and a little weird but it’s a funny story to look back on.

Club Lucky

This old man had 69 written on his back haha (dressed as a football player)

I also went into the parks around Halloween and got to meet some of my favorites characters:)

Halloween in Disneyland was quite magical and I’m so glad I got to spend this holiday here for the first time!

Possibly the best shift ever

Tonight I closed New Orleans and it could quite possibly be my favorite shift ever. It’s kind of funny because I traded this shift with someone just 2 days ago so if I had worked the Esplanade, like I was suppose to, my night would have gone way different. I ended up working with one of my favorite leads and some other co-workers I had never really worked with before. I made new friends quickly as we talked and joked backstage. We start talking about what “ratchet” means and one thing leads to another and my lead turns on “Selfie” to have our co-worker hear what the song is. Being me, I start to dance and we’re all cracking up so I start making up dance moves similar to the lawn mower, the sprinkler, the shopping cart, ect. but for custodial things! So I made up the “pan and broom,” “airing out the trash bag,” tying up the trash bag,” “putting the new bag in,” “using the compactor,” “pushing the liner,” “wiping down the trash can,” cleaning up a code,” the mop,” “push brooming,” and “liner and picker.”

After we laughed until my lead almost peed her pants, our manager came back to check up on us. So I casually show my moves to my manager and he legitly loves them! He even made up his own dance move, “the pipe draining.” He tells me how he seriously wants me to show these moves off to the other managers and starts talking about how we need to have an event to have everyone see them.

Since I’m working New Orleans I get to help with Fantasmic clean up and since I’ve never seen the show, I watch it… twice… and I got paid to do it! It was such an amazing show and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to see the whole thing. Earlier that night I was sweeping near Club 33 and I saw some guests waiting to get in, so I stood around to see what the entrance looked like on the inside. About 10 minutes go by and they’re still waiting, so I go up to them and talk to them asking if they’re waiting to get in… turned out they were at the wrong door… the old one. I had known they had renovated Club 33 and changed the entrance but they looked confident on what they were doing so I didn’t say anything until I realized they weren’t so confident about the door. When I told them about the renovations they were so happy so I offered to walk them over to the new door. When the Club 33 cast member opened the door I was probably a little more excited then I should have been to see the inside entrance haha. When that was over I ran into my friend Taylor and her old co-worker. She did the last program (and an AZ kid) and I’m Facebook friends with her so it was super cool to see a familiar face and chat for a bit.

I also got to pin trade, hand out a TON of buttons and stickers and make my first MAGICAL MOMENT! OH! and I got to clean (with a leaf blower) the Haunted Mansion doombuggies (which usually only the leads do, but my lead let me)… it was nothing super special but it was fun and I found a NICKEL (like little Mike in Monster’s University haha).

At the end of the night I went to the managers office to get a Four Keys Card signed for my co-worker and my manager was like, “but no, seriously, let’s make this happen… think about performing your dance moves either by your self or recruit other custodial cast members and you can do it at an event, like the next cast event.” It made my night on how much he liked it and how dead serious he was about making this a thing.

It was honestly the best shift ever. Thank God, because this is what i really needed this week!

then I made new friends
then Nick said “girllllllll”
then Nick and I made a magical night
then I handed out a million buttons
then I created the best dance moves ever
then Bre almost peed her pants
then someone snap chatted me dancing
then we all laughed and laughed and laughed
then I saw Fantasmic for the first time
then I made John into a skeleton with my bone cheetos via iphone camera
then I cleaned doombuggies
then a grass-hopper flew on Marlene’s shoulder and we didn’t realize it until we were down stairs in Haunted Mansion’s basement
then light-up Tink came to visit us
then Marlene and I went on an adventure to get coffee
then Sarena came to visit me #shetouchedthebutt
then I became my manager’s favorite #sorrynotsorry
then we sang closing time on the cast shuttle

Dream Suite Tour

Yesterday I had the privilege of touring the Dream Suite as apart of one of the events offered to me in the DCP. It was a once in a life time opportunity and I’m so grateful to have gotten to see what many don’t get to. I learned that only less than 1% of Cast Members get a tour of the Dream Suite. Can you imagine the percentage of those who don’t work at Disneyland?!

Walt had lived in his apartment above the Fire House’ spending a lot of time up there looking over Disneyland to make sure it was just how he imagined it. After he had stayed there for quite some time but he decided he needed a bigger entertaining facility for various VIPs that came to the park so he started building a luxury apartment above Pirates of the Caribbean, originally named the “Royal Suite” inspired by its location off New Orleans Square’s Royal Street. Construction began in the early 1960’s but it didn’t finish before Walt passed away so Roy decided to put a hold on the construction.

From 1987-2007 the space housed the Disney Gallery, but in 2008 the apartment opened and was renamed the “Dream Suite.” It is now used by VIP guest (aka celebrities and rich people). I was able to take pictures inside, which i didn’t think I was going to be able to do, but unfortunately I’m not aloud to post the pictures. If you want to see what the apartment looks like, Google image search “Dream Suite” and you can see some. It was really cool because since Walt designed the apartment he added a lot of special touches including a butterfly stain glass window for his wife (Lilly), Lilly’s antique water fountain and knick-knacks, a “goodnight kiss” button for his bedroom and the kid’s room, and a similar button (I don’t remember what it was called) for the bathroom for the amazing bathtub in there. Walt and Lilly’s bedroom was Adventure themed since that was his favorite and the kid’s room was Frontierland themed. He even had the famous set designer from “Gone with the Wind” help him with the apartment layout.

Although I can’t post pictures inside, I can post this picture from outside:)

Parade and Haunted Mansion!

Last night I got to do parade pre-clean up and post-clean up again, which I enjoy since I can pretty much be on Main Street talking to guests and pin trading until the park closes. I got to hand out some buttons and take pictures again. At the end of the night I even got to watch the Mickey and the Magical Map performers practice while I was on break. Not only that, but as we cleaned up we helped with utility things and got to watch the parade floats go back from Main Street to Small World (no characters were on the floats but it was still pretty cool). I also got to hear and see them testing out the music and projection lights for Mickey’s Halloween Party.

I forgot to blog about the previous day too! Not much happened since I just worked a utility shift when the park closed, but something that I thought was cool was getting to vacuum the Haunted Mansion Portrait Hallway. The HM was having a private tour for those Cast Members working in Critter Country/New Orleans so when they were done we got to go in with the lights on and clean up. It may not be extremely exciting, but I enjoy getting to see things from points of view that normal guests don’t get to see. While we were waiting, me and my two other co-workers got to just hang out down in the basement of HM as they told me some creepy stories they’ve heard about HM and Disneyland in general. One story they told me was that the little end table that Madame Leota is on was given to Disneyland as a gift specifically for the Haunted Mansion. The women (or family) that gave them the table actually practiced witchcraft and she said that if the table is removed from the attraction, bad things will happen. So that is like the only thing still there since the attraction opened. Other things will be replaced and moved in and out of the attraction, but that will never leave! Crazy, huh? I love hearing these stories that people wouldn’t normally hear about. In October I’ll get the chance to have a tour of the Haunted Mansion and I’m so excited to be able to see and hear more about the attraction!

Main Street is my favorite!

Today I my teacher from AZ who I’m getting college credit from came to Disneyland with her family and wanted to visit with me. It was nice being able to talk with her about the program and she even gave me a small gift, a 2014 Mickey pin. After my visit with her I went to work and got to sweep all of Main Street. This shift was a little different because I didn’t have any restrictions on where I had to sweep, plus the sun was still up, which I prefer so I can see everything and everyone.

I love sweeping right in front of the castle because I instantly become a Photo-pass Photographer haha. People ask me to take pictures for them, but I love it even more when I offer because they seem so grateful! Another amazing feeling is guest’s compliments. I haven’t gotten a guest compliment on paper. but I get compliments from guest everyday thanking me personally on how clean the park is. It makes me proud to be a custodian and humbled that I can help make it spotless.

Speaking of cleaning, I cleaned up the parade today and instead of pan and brooming like usually, I was push broom for the first time since someone didn’t show up for the shift. I had never done it before so I was a little uneasy about it since I’ve heard it was hard, but after clean-up my lead told me I did an awesome job and thanked me since she knew I was a little unsure about it.

I got a bunch more buttons from City Hall today and gave a few to some kids after I took their picture in front of the castle. It was their first time in Disneyland ever, so I was so happy to have been able to capture that memory for them and give them First Visit buttons. I pin traded for a little while this afternoon/evening too, but the most interesting about my day was seeing someone arrested in Disneyland for the first time. As I walked backstage I saw security hauling off some kid (like 19) with a smirk on his face. I don’t know why people would commit crimes in Disneyland, I mean it’s the Happiest Place on Earth! I overheard him saying he was trespassing so I guess he was trying to sneak in so he could be happy. Well I’m sure the Disneyland ticket is cheaper then his bail, hope he learns to just buy a ticket next time if he’s ever aloud back in.