And My location is...

I have finally arrived in Florida!!

Guess what?????? I found out where my work location is :) I'll give you a hint, it sort of relates to something in the picture above. But remember I'm a Vacation planner which means I work a ticket booth at one of the parks front entrances. That means there are really only 4 options for me... have you guessed it yet? Come on there are only 4 choices here people, look up all the park names then guess again...



I'M WORKING AT DISNEY'S ANIMAL KINGDOM!!!!!

Not entirely sure how I feel about that (even though I made it all caps and bold). That is the park i have spent the least amount of time in so it will be a lot of learning for me but i'm sure it will be awesome. Just like the first few days have been. So now I'm going to fill you in on the events of these first few days of the program. (Warning: this may or may not be a longer post...you have been warned...)

Day Before Check-In

It is so incredibly green here, and its awesome! Coming in on the airplane all I could see for miles was luscious green treetops and little breakout lakes. If you are from a dry state like me (Nevada), this is a wonderful sight to see.

So the night before check-in I shared a hotel room with 2 of my housemates. It was a Disney hotel which I totally recommend if you are making this trip to Florida by yourself. You get to split the cost of the room, you have the option to have the Disney Magical Express pick you and your luggage up from the airport (best thing ever) and you get to hang out and relax with friends the night before. It was just wonderful. I didn't have to worry about my bags because Disney delivered them from the luggage carousel directly to my hotel room. Yeah i had to wait 3 hours to get my bags, but its totally worth it if you are taking two 50lbs bags with you plus two stuffed carry-ons it definitely lightens up your load. So just get a Disney hotel early, like not the week before, try months before, then utilize their amazing customer service to start your program with a bit of magic. (Just Do It).

Days of Check-In

Before I arrived (like three days before Ill say), I got an email telling me to arrive during a specific time frame for check in on Monday. Mine was between 9 and 10 am. So I would have been in the second group of check-ins. I highly recommend that you show up between the times they tell you. Why? Because you wont have to wait in line as long. We showed up at about 8:30 (after booking a taxi from our hotel because Disney does not transport you to Vista Way FYI), and did not get finished until about 11:30. My other housemate that did show up between 9 and 10 (9:30 I believe) finished at the exact same time as me. Soooo basically I could have slept in an extra hour...

Lines are long and there is always more waiting. Get over it now! They want to get everything right so let them work.

In these lines you find out several things: Where your work location is, what apartment complex you're placed in, when you go to casting, when your housing meeting is and the day but not the time you have Traditions. They now split casting into two days, the check-in day and the day after, so don't make too many solid plans during these days.

I had casting today so I had the rest of Monday to unpack my apartment and go grocery shopping. It was a very long day so get some sleep the night before. It's worth it.

Casting was short sweet and simple. They tell you when your Traditions class is, they tell you when your first day of training is and how to get there (using either your car or Disney buses), they ask you for your proof of citizenship (aka I9 forms, aka Passport or birth certificate, drivers license and social security card), make you sign forms stating the cops aren't searching for you currently (no criminal record), and then take you fingerprints to verify once again that the cops don't have a bounty on your head. So don't lie! The Disney secret service will catch you! And that was the end of my day.

I have my housing meeting tomorrow evening, then a day off, then traditions on Friday and my first day of training on Saturday. I shall post again with updates on all that good stuff.