I often look back and think about what I would have done differently about my program. I decided I should write them all down so I don't forget for next time ;)
I wish I had become close to my coworkers sooner. This means going to all the CM events that your location puts on, and really making an effort to get to know people. It's always hard being the new girl, but I ended up LOVING all my amazing coworkers!
I wish I hadn't spent so much money on QSFB AND groceries. Seriously I bought so much food, and really didn't need half of it. So I wish I had been wiser on spending my money on food.
I DEFINITELY wish I had done more exploration of the hotels. Especially during Christmastime when they're all decked out!
I wish I had done the program at 21...food & wine would have been even more amazing!
I wish I hadn't packed so much stuff! Especially since I was flying by plane, I definitely could have gotten by with less clothes.
I REALLY wish I had made it to the welcome show at Magic Kingdom...I was always too lazy and wanted to sleep in!
I wish I had written out my bucket list and put it on my cork board. I completely forgot I made one, and there was a lot of cool things on there!
I wish I had dressed up for Mickey's Not So Scar Halloween Party...
I wish I would have thanked my managers and coordinators more often. They work so hard and hardly get recognised!
I wish I could have hung out with my ICP friends more often! I loved being around them at work, but should have made more of an effort to play in the parks with them :)
I wish my family could have visited in the middle of fall when food & wine was going on, the parks were less busy, and I could have gotten them in for free <3
All that being said, I could not be happier with my program. I wouldn't change my roommates for the world, and even though we had a cramped triple occupancy apartment, I wouldn't change that either. I wouldn't even change my role! QSFB is something I never want to work again, but it was such an eye opening and life changing experience. I am so incredibly blessed to have had the opportunity to work QSFB at Studio Catering Co and play at Disney World for four months. I am homesick for WDW literally every day and am counting down the days to when I can go back. I knew when I was there that I wanted to make a career out of Disney, and the further away from Disney I get, the more I want it. I'm actually looking at jobs that would specifically help me get a professional internship with Disney, this is my new dream! AT LAST, I see the light. ;) But seriously, I had no idea what the heck I wanted to do with my major (Ag Business) and even though working for the science/zoology side of Disney isn't REALLY all that related to my major...it's what I want to do. :)
D-Fam
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Disney College Program VS International College Program
The Disney College Program (DCP) and the International College Program (ICP) are very similar, but have a few distinct differences. The first one, obviously, being that to do the DCP you need to have American citizenship. The ICP's come from all over the world, they must be fluent in English and be in college, same as the American CP's. All Americans pick their arrival dates, and they range from early May to early September, the ICP's are all here for six months, so they have less flexibility on dates. Something really cool about ICP's, however, is that they get to work two roles. So the first three months (give or take a few weeks) they work one role, then switch for the second half of their program. All of the internationals that I worked with in QSFB worked merchandise for their second role. I don't know if those two just go together, or what, but that's how it worked for them!
Also, character performers don't switch halfway through. I actually met a lot of international character performers, but they stay character performers for the whole program. They were all fur characters, no face, but face characters are pretty rare for CP's anyways! The ICP's end dates were about a week or week and a half after ours were. Oh, and the Commons is no longer just for internationals! Also, the international students don't have the same arrival dates as CP's, so (for my program at least), we weren't allowed to room with ICP's, which is stupid.
If you have a roommate term for whatever reason, you might get a Brazilian in the late fall. I don't know if they have this program for spring, but the Brazilian CP's fall into their own category: they work from November - late January, and they're all from Brazil. Most of my friends who had an empty room ended up with Brazilian roommates (whom they loved!) so that was their best chance of getting placed with internationals.
So as you can see, there's only a few differences between the DCP and ICP programs. One of my favourite parts of the program was all the amazing internationals I got to work with!!
Also, character performers don't switch halfway through. I actually met a lot of international character performers, but they stay character performers for the whole program. They were all fur characters, no face, but face characters are pretty rare for CP's anyways! The ICP's end dates were about a week or week and a half after ours were. Oh, and the Commons is no longer just for internationals! Also, the international students don't have the same arrival dates as CP's, so (for my program at least), we weren't allowed to room with ICP's, which is stupid.
If you have a roommate term for whatever reason, you might get a Brazilian in the late fall. I don't know if they have this program for spring, but the Brazilian CP's fall into their own category: they work from November - late January, and they're all from Brazil. Most of my friends who had an empty room ended up with Brazilian roommates (whom they loved!) so that was their best chance of getting placed with internationals.
So as you can see, there's only a few differences between the DCP and ICP programs. One of my favourite parts of the program was all the amazing internationals I got to work with!!
Sunday, March 8, 2015
FOOD (Grocery Shopping VS Eating Out)
So here's a whole lot of things I wish I knew going in about food. A lot of this depends on whether or not you have a car, I will mostly focus on those who rely on the bus system. Because I did. :)
The bus will take you to either Walmart or Publix, and I shopped at both of them. I usually preferred fresh produce from Publix, and frozen anything from Walmart. Publix has a lot of good deals (buy one get one free - ALWAYS), but if you take in those coupons to Walmart, they will give you that discount there.
My grocery bills usually consisted of apples, a bag or two of lettuce, a whole or part Rotisserie chicken, cereal, milk (I used gallon jugs, but I use a lot of milk), butter, Kraft mac n cheese, noodles, canned fruit/canned soup, frozen veggies and frozen mango, yogurt, bananas, junk food if I was being weak that day, juice, and the occasional eggs/flour/salt, stuff like that. I shopped every other week and probably spent like $50-$80 per grocery bill.
Now my problem is that anytime I was in the parks (so like at least 3-4 times a week as a guest), I always bought food. I almost never brought stuff from home because I knew I couldn't resist a good hot meal! I would definitely go either/or. EITHER buy good groceries, and keep eating out to a minimum OR only buy a few groceries like breakfast food and sandwiches, and save your money (and calories!) for eating out. I know some people that never bought groceries and just ate out all the time. They actually ended up saving money and losing weight (I know, sounds totally backwards), but that is probably not the healthiest way to do it.
If you have a car, you have more freedom for grocery shopping, but also for eating out. My friends with cars definitely spent more on food, just because it's so much more accessible. So plan accordingly if you're bringing a car!!
Also, if you do decide to eat out in the parks a lot, order kids meals. They are much cheaper than adult meals, and come with a bigger variety of food. This way you have a more balanced meal, a better portion size, and you're saving money. I ended up maintaining my weight/maybe gaining a pound or two, but I ate out A LOT and also ate in A LOT. The only reason I didn't gain 234234 pounds is because you walk and sweat a ton. My roommate Lindsey ended up losing almost 25 lbs (or something like that) because the amount of exercise she was getting here was more than she did back home. We both had similar diets, but different exercise habits pre-DCP. So whether or not you gain or lose weight really depends on self control, and your habits before you come to Disney.
I hope you found this somewhat helpful!! Food is where at least like 80% of my money went, so come with a budget, or expectations. I ended up making more money than I spent, but only by maybe $300 or so. That's all the advice I have :) Make a decision on where you want your money and calories to go, and stick to it! I was in the grey area for my whole program and ended up spending a lot of money on food I didn't need, or didn't eat. I had to sell my groceries to a coworker at the end of my program, and it was SO much food. Like at least a few weeks worth of dry groceries. So make good choices!! Hopefully I will next time around ;)
The bus will take you to either Walmart or Publix, and I shopped at both of them. I usually preferred fresh produce from Publix, and frozen anything from Walmart. Publix has a lot of good deals (buy one get one free - ALWAYS), but if you take in those coupons to Walmart, they will give you that discount there.
My grocery bills usually consisted of apples, a bag or two of lettuce, a whole or part Rotisserie chicken, cereal, milk (I used gallon jugs, but I use a lot of milk), butter, Kraft mac n cheese, noodles, canned fruit/canned soup, frozen veggies and frozen mango, yogurt, bananas, junk food if I was being weak that day, juice, and the occasional eggs/flour/salt, stuff like that. I shopped every other week and probably spent like $50-$80 per grocery bill.
Now my problem is that anytime I was in the parks (so like at least 3-4 times a week as a guest), I always bought food. I almost never brought stuff from home because I knew I couldn't resist a good hot meal! I would definitely go either/or. EITHER buy good groceries, and keep eating out to a minimum OR only buy a few groceries like breakfast food and sandwiches, and save your money (and calories!) for eating out. I know some people that never bought groceries and just ate out all the time. They actually ended up saving money and losing weight (I know, sounds totally backwards), but that is probably not the healthiest way to do it.
If you have a car, you have more freedom for grocery shopping, but also for eating out. My friends with cars definitely spent more on food, just because it's so much more accessible. So plan accordingly if you're bringing a car!!
Also, if you do decide to eat out in the parks a lot, order kids meals. They are much cheaper than adult meals, and come with a bigger variety of food. This way you have a more balanced meal, a better portion size, and you're saving money. I ended up maintaining my weight/maybe gaining a pound or two, but I ate out A LOT and also ate in A LOT. The only reason I didn't gain 234234 pounds is because you walk and sweat a ton. My roommate Lindsey ended up losing almost 25 lbs (or something like that) because the amount of exercise she was getting here was more than she did back home. We both had similar diets, but different exercise habits pre-DCP. So whether or not you gain or lose weight really depends on self control, and your habits before you come to Disney.
I hope you found this somewhat helpful!! Food is where at least like 80% of my money went, so come with a budget, or expectations. I ended up making more money than I spent, but only by maybe $300 or so. That's all the advice I have :) Make a decision on where you want your money and calories to go, and stick to it! I was in the grey area for my whole program and ended up spending a lot of money on food I didn't need, or didn't eat. I had to sell my groceries to a coworker at the end of my program, and it was SO much food. Like at least a few weeks worth of dry groceries. So make good choices!! Hopefully I will next time around ;)
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
I GOT A YOUTUBE CHANNEL!
So I now have a YouTube channel!! Yay! I'm seriously debating starting vlogs... (video blogs). I tried when I started my program, but it was just too awkward. Well now I think I might just do a few on my role, my experience, and stuff like that. So far I only have 3 videos up, one from the DCP, one from my summer on a dude ranch, and one from here in New Zealand. Here's the link to my DCP video, feel free to check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0dI_5rkEqE
Sorry that it's not incredibly interesting, I didn't film much footage while I was there. It's just the few videos I have mixed in with some photos :) I'll definitely be putting up more videos from New Zealand (since I happen to be here right now with a GoPro), but stay tuned for updates on vlogging! I hope y'all are having a magical week, and that everyone waiting to hear back for fall gets accepted!! <3
That's it for my brief update. I think I might attempt my first vlog...wish me luck ;)
UPDATE: I MADE A VLOG. It is probably the most awkward thing you have EVER seen in your life. But here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSN5B3c0O1w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0dI_5rkEqE
Sorry that it's not incredibly interesting, I didn't film much footage while I was there. It's just the few videos I have mixed in with some photos :) I'll definitely be putting up more videos from New Zealand (since I happen to be here right now with a GoPro), but stay tuned for updates on vlogging! I hope y'all are having a magical week, and that everyone waiting to hear back for fall gets accepted!! <3
That's it for my brief update. I think I might attempt my first vlog...wish me luck ;)
UPDATE: I MADE A VLOG. It is probably the most awkward thing you have EVER seen in your life. But here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSN5B3c0O1w
Monday, March 2, 2015
Summer Alumni Program
So here's something I just recently found out about....THERE'S A SUMMER PROGRAM FOR ALUMNI! Sooooo I wouldn't have to wait until fall 2017 to do another DCP. Do you have any idea how happy that makes me?!
Okay so for those of you who don't know, the summer alumni program is a DCP but from May-August instead of the traditional fall or spring length. This program is only offered to those who have completed a Disney College Program, and previously was only offered at Disneyland. Apparently this year they started a WDW one too? I'm a little confused on that part, but I'm so excited that this is a thing! The application comes out around the same time as fall applications, and the process is pretty much the same. I was following one girl's vlogs who did the summer alumni program a couple years back at DLR, and she said there were only 25 of them doing it, so that's pretty crazy! That's also not the most recent record. I'll throw her link in right here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_3qGHzeq-k
I'm seriously considering applying for this for next summer. Apparently this year they only had the applications open for like a 24 hour period, so I'd have to be on top of it next time! But my NEW plan is to apply for the summer program for summer of 2016, and also apply for some marine biology internships, and see where I get accepted. Both would be beneficial so it's a win-win! I'm still planning on doing another program in fall of 2017, then extending into a Professional Internship, preferably the marine mammals internship. I change my mind a lot, but I know one thing is for sure: Disney has not seen the last of me! I also just applied for the Disney Alumni Association, which is basically a group for people who have successfully completed a college program. They send you free stuff, so that's pretty cool ;) I'm just waiting to hear back from them! Also. My DCP roomies and I are planning a REUNION!! Most of us are west coasters, so we're planning on a Disneyland trip in early July, which would be incredible. I miss my girls so much!!!! <3 Shoutout to the princesses in 26301, you made my program so magical :)
UPDATE: One of my old coworkers from Studio Catering Co. actually did an alumni program this past summer and I got to visit her! She worked QSFB cashier in Disneyland at the dole whip stand and LOVED it. Disneyland is a little bit different than Disney World and at least when she worked at DLR she got TWO guest passes per day for something like 10 days. So pretty much the same amount of passes total, but for less people over more days. I know other people have had other experiences, so this might not be accurate anymore, but at least that's what she had for summer 2015. She said she preferred working in DLR to WDW, but preferred living in Orlando to Anaheim. Also it was much more expensive to live at DLR and the bus system is different.
Okay so for those of you who don't know, the summer alumni program is a DCP but from May-August instead of the traditional fall or spring length. This program is only offered to those who have completed a Disney College Program, and previously was only offered at Disneyland. Apparently this year they started a WDW one too? I'm a little confused on that part, but I'm so excited that this is a thing! The application comes out around the same time as fall applications, and the process is pretty much the same. I was following one girl's vlogs who did the summer alumni program a couple years back at DLR, and she said there were only 25 of them doing it, so that's pretty crazy! That's also not the most recent record. I'll throw her link in right here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_3qGHzeq-k
I'm seriously considering applying for this for next summer. Apparently this year they only had the applications open for like a 24 hour period, so I'd have to be on top of it next time! But my NEW plan is to apply for the summer program for summer of 2016, and also apply for some marine biology internships, and see where I get accepted. Both would be beneficial so it's a win-win! I'm still planning on doing another program in fall of 2017, then extending into a Professional Internship, preferably the marine mammals internship. I change my mind a lot, but I know one thing is for sure: Disney has not seen the last of me! I also just applied for the Disney Alumni Association, which is basically a group for people who have successfully completed a college program. They send you free stuff, so that's pretty cool ;) I'm just waiting to hear back from them! Also. My DCP roomies and I are planning a REUNION!! Most of us are west coasters, so we're planning on a Disneyland trip in early July, which would be incredible. I miss my girls so much!!!! <3 Shoutout to the princesses in 26301, you made my program so magical :)
UPDATE: One of my old coworkers from Studio Catering Co. actually did an alumni program this past summer and I got to visit her! She worked QSFB cashier in Disneyland at the dole whip stand and LOVED it. Disneyland is a little bit different than Disney World and at least when she worked at DLR she got TWO guest passes per day for something like 10 days. So pretty much the same amount of passes total, but for less people over more days. I know other people have had other experiences, so this might not be accurate anymore, but at least that's what she had for summer 2015. She said she preferred working in DLR to WDW, but preferred living in Orlando to Anaheim. Also it was much more expensive to live at DLR and the bus system is different.
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