365 Days

It has officially been one year since I received my acceptance email into the Disney College Program. I can't believe the time has gone by so fast and honestly I miss it more than ever. I can't wait to return in the Fall of 2015 and make memories all over again. It's been one heck of a journey, thank you to those who have stuck around EOE during it all.

That Infamous Email

Well I finally received that fateful email. Exactly a month later at 6:11AM my phone beeped and those exciting words appeared in my inbox. Unfortunately, a lot has happened during my month of waiting to hear back. I've decided that Spring 2015 is not my time to go back to the Disney College Program. It will be my last semester of college and I don't want to miss out on the memories with my friends (those of you in sororities or fraternities might understand this the most). Plus I, once again, missed auditions as I had initiation for my sorority. If I'm going to do this again, I'm going to do it right. Because I missed auditions, I was kind of excited to see what they would determine as the "role best fit for me." Wait for it.....get excited......Quick Service Food and Beverage. Not exactly my ideal role.

I think it is best for me to go back to Disney in the fall. I won't miss auditions and I think some of my old DCP friends are planning on going back during that time too!

Here We Go Again

Hey there EOE fans. Long time no talk! First of all, I wanted to thank those of you that continued to read after my program was all said and done. I've still been receiving a lot of feedback and that's such a great feeling!

So I did something a little crazy. I applied for another College Program for Spring 2015.

Now that I'm home, a lot of people ask me, "what's one thing you would change if you could go back and do it all over again." For those of you who have been following my story, you know how much I've always wanted to be a character performer, and in fact I auditioned during my program this past year. I had missed auditions prior to applying for my first program and that was always my biggest regret. Not that I didn't love my role as a Merchandise Hostess or the people I worked with, but I would've loved to had the role I wanted during my program and not just for the summer extension, which is what I got it for.

So I will be auditioning in Phoenix, AZ on October 5th and hopefully all goes well.

I submitted my application today, September 25th at 3:15PM, and it went by pretty quickly since they already had a lot of my information filled in. I will keep you updated as things continue or if they change!

And Just Like That...

Like many-a-blogger I must apologize for this aggressively delayed final post. I've been thinking of the best way to wrap up this adventure, to put it into words how those "last's" were for me without sounding super cliche. I don't want to give every detail away because remember people, there's much more to come in my book, but I know I just can't leave you hanging.

Now that I could look back at it, I'm almost at a loss for words how to sum it up. The last few weeks were probably the most fun. The fact that we were all leaving was starting to sink in and my friends in I had decided to crank out every fun memory that we could. It was a blast, but it made it even more difficult because, hey now it was just starting to get super fun.

My last week was filled with long hours, hard rain, and my father flying in from Colorado. We hit the parks for two days and on that final night, as so many CP's had done, I watched Wishes for the last time. Tears welled up in my eyes, I am such a baby, and I found myself thinking "dreams really DO come true." 

My program had its ups and downs but I met some amazing people along the way, was introduced to incredible experiences, and had the time of my life. I'm glad I did it. I passed the "See Ya Real Soon" sign for the last time on my way out of Orlando and kissed my beautiful memories goodbye. It was truly incredible.

The Final Stretch

Well we're getting near the end people! With only a month left we've decided to kick it into high gear and squeeze everything we can out of this last month, which started with a trip to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure today with some friends! Of course this was lots and lots of fun and because I'm technically a Florida resident I bought the annual pass and have every intention of going back because it pays for itself after about three times!

Work has been FLYING by! I worked 40.6 hours this week, which is the most I've ever gotten scheduled for, which is crazy to me because my Magic Kingdom friends are getting scheduled for like 50+ hours! Nothing too new to report at work! Yesterday I worked a midday shift, which means I got done at 7:30pm when the park closed at 9:00pm. It was strange to me, CP's normally close. So I decided to ride Expedition Everest real quick after work...lots of fun, as expected.

I'm going to Vegas in nine days, which I am so excited for and then my dad will be down a few days before my last official day! It's crazy how fast it's all flown by, but of course it was expected!

Summer Extension

It had been a month since my Character Performer audition when I finally received an email. They said I would hear back between April 2nd and April 7th and I heard back at 10:09am on the 2nd. I opened up the email and saw it:

So here comes the part that you don't want to hear...I have declined the offer. What an amazing opportunity this has been, and I am so honored to receive it. But it's time for this chapter in my life to come to an end. I need to finish up school, school comes first.

By now you probably want to punch me through your computer screen, I know I would've if I was looking at this from six months ago. But I feel confident that I've made the right decision and happy knowing that.

Last Day of Exploring Disney Heritage

Today was the final day of my Exploring Disney Heritage series. We finally got to learn the winner of last week's Hollywood Studios scavenger hunt...the winner was..........MY TEAM! We all won DCP graduation cap pins, which was really neat! Today was also the day we all received our "Mousters Degrees" for completing the course!

Overall, the course was really fun and I look back to when I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to register for it in the first place...it was all worth it. The class was fun, informative and I learned a lot about this wonderful company! I definitely recommend it to anyone who is on the fence or even thinking about not taking a course at all! It definitely enriched my program. No homework, no tests, and it was free! It's just another added bonus of the Disney College Program, so you might as well take advantage of the opportunities at hand!

Jambo From Harambe

One morning after one of my beautiful and enthralling training classes I clocked in at Asia and it told me to pick up KSR Cart 1….what is that? I know the names of all my carts because we only have three…that’s not one of them. I frantically searched for a manager and discovered that I had been transferred over to Africa for the day because they were so shorthanded. So me and my fun Asian costume headed over to Africa. It was pretty much like picking up an extra hours shift, but in the wrong costume. They had a lot of different merchandise that I had to get acquainted with not to mention just finding everything in the store, because there store is huge! It was a good experience though, I met some awesome people that work in Africa regularly and if it wasn’t for their AWFUL costume, I would definitely pick up an actual extra hours shift in Africa! 

Final Days of Disney Heritage and Disney Marketing

My classes, like my job, were sort of becoming just part of the humdrum of it all. Luckily, I have one of the best teachers out there who knows what he’s doing and he’s good at teaching his classes. Disney Heritage has been especially exciting the past two classes as one took place in Magic Kingdom and the other took place in Hollywood Studios. Both were great because we got to get out of the two-hour classroom environment. Two hours goes by a lot differently when you’re in the classroom vs. the parks. 
At Magic Kingdom we really got to learn some fun trivia about Disney. I mean that’s really all Disney Heritage is anyway, lots and lots of fun facts about the company and our wonderful creator, Walt Disney. At Hollywood Studios, we broke into teams of 4-6 and competed in a scavenger hunt! Everybody has fun at some friendly competition and my group was no exception. We found out who the top three teams were via the EDU website and you’ll be happy to know that my bad-a team was one of the top three. Now we’ll just have to see what the rankings are. If you ain’t first your last people (Ricky Bobby reference).

Marketing has been nothing but guest speakers. Lots and lots of guest speakers and lots and lots of videos. This class really has done a great job showing how my field of study could be translated into this company. It highlighted all the areas of the Marketing department and I was able to discover what I know I don’t want to do and things that really strike my interest.

All in all, I definitely recommend taking classes, I don’t think my college program experience would have been the same without them. Woah……it’s crazy that I can talk in hindsight now, my program is almost over people! Just remember that time flies!

Training Classes

By the time you get pretty settled into your job and you don’t feel like the “new kid” anymore (we all know how that feels), Disney decides that you’re ready to learn some new VERY IMPORTANT information. This is where training classes come in. Thus far I have had the extreme joy of attending two of these beautiful classes (I hope you can smell the sarcasm through the screen). 

If you’ve been following my blog, you have heard me mention the Four Keys Basics. These are the four….things?….that Disney employees work by. They are: Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency. These are nailed into your head from the day you get to Disney over and over and over and over……………..and over. They are four principles that keep our company going and I believe they’re important don’t get me wrong, but how much more can your learn about these four things? Apparently Disney believes about three more hours worth. Three more hours worth starting at 7:45AM. You can believe my excitement. My other class was Safety in Motion, or SIM for short, where you learn how to lift and move things properly, again another nail biter this one was. 

Both classes were early in the morning and both classes were three hours long. The plus side? You’re getting paid….alright I can deal with that. You’re with about 15-20 other people from around your park. And I’ll give it to the teachers, they try their hardest to make it interesting bless their souls. But if I never have to take another one of these classes again…….I wouldn’t hate the idea.

Cliche "I'm Alive" Post

Where have I been? Back when I was reading through blogs, checking the days on my count down, and trying not to already pack up everything in my room, there were many blogs I had to quit following simply because the writers stopped writing. I’d shake my fist at the screen…how dare they? But you gotta look realistically at the typical experiences of a DCP blogger. It kind of goes in phases: I just applied, let me tell you everything about that. Then the phone interview. Now I’m waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. OH MY GOSH I GOT ACCEPTED. Now I’m waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. Oh, I packed up all my stuff. Check-in! Now Traditions. Work. Work. Work. Work. Work. Work. Work?………………….Work?…………………..I’m alive………………………………Cricket chirping. 

I’m not writing to tell you that you can all kiss me goodbye, I know those of you who are almost here for Fall Advantage and then later for Fall (by the way, what’s your countdown people?) are feverishly reading blogs and watching vlogs because you want to know it all! I’m actually more here to apologize that I haven’t been the quick blogger that I was in the beginning. In my defense, there really isn’t too much exciting-ness going on…but sit tight because I’ve got an aggressive amount of blogs comin’ at ya!

Finding Myself In The Eight Week Slump

I must admit that I have found myself in the eight week slump. There are only eight weeks left of my program and man has it flown by! I'm still enjoying my program, don't get my wrong, but I have now FULLY sunk into the humdrum of my full work schedule. I have about two weeks left until I find out about the status of my extension. I have been working on my days off so that I can take some days of later to visit home. Speaking of home I'm really missing my boyfriend, friends, and oddly enough, my home state, which I thought I would never miss, because it's Arizona. But sure enough, they are all missed dearly.

Needless to say, I've hit a plateau. But like my Disney teacher said on the first day of class, this is the point where you decide what you're going to make of your program. Guess only time will tell!

Emily Earns Her Ears: Update on My Book

Thus far, I have written the first draft for about eight chapters of my book, Emily Earns Her Ears. My book is a lot more "book-like" than my blog and it's been a lot of fun to write. I'm looking forward to getting the edits back from my editor. To make it all more official, I received my contract today in the mail...I'm writing a book people! Say whaaaat?! 

Today Jake and I did Hollywood Studios and we left no stone unturned, which was a blast because we did a lot of things that I hadn't done before! In the next coming days, I won't be able to give you a lot of work updates because homegirl has five days off (say hello to no paycheck!). But it will all be worth it for the memories I get to make with my boyfriend! 

I'd also like to take a moment to thank the people that have been commenting on my blogs and vlogs, it's comments like the ones I have been receiving that make me feel like what I'm doing here on my blog and YouTube channel isn't ENTIRELY dorky! So thanks for those of you who are following who aren't just family and friends! Hopefully you'll stick around and finish out the program with me, because as long as people are reading, I will gladly keep writing!

My Vlog Channel

I thought I'd take a moment to showcase my vlog channel since I might be making more vlog posts than blog posts from here on out. If you haven't checked out my latest vlog, I explained why, but basically it's because of my book. People aren't likely to buy my book if they can basically read the blog version of it online for free. So I'll be doing some light blogging and hopefully more vlogging as my program continues.

Check out my vlog channel here.

Here are some updates you have to look forward to:

• Training classes at work.
• Disney Heritage class.
• Shift in Africa at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
• Most recent Meet and Greet.
• My boyfriend visiting.

Program Update One

Exploring Disney Heritage: Week Four

I can't believe that this week is already the fourth week of class. Even crazier is there are only ten weeks left in my Spring program. WHAT?! This week in class we talked about the theme parks. Disney theme parks are, of course, my favorite part of this company and we focused mostly on my favorite park of them all: Disneyland. We got to watch a lot of neat videos of opening day and "re-opening" of the park, openings of attractions like the Matterhorn, the Monorail, and the Submarine Voyage. It was neat to see how far things have come but it was also neat to see how things were back then. Everything was just so different, from the way people talked, dressed, their mannerisms, it was all beautiful, in my opinion. This week's session was just another reminder of how special Walt was and how special the things he did were.

Next week will be very exciting because next week's class takes place IN Magic Kingdom. We don't have to dress in business casual (thank God), and I'm sure it will be a very fun class!

Q&A

In just my five weeks of being here, I've started to notice that I've gained a little bit of a following on this blog from people that aren't my friends and family back at home. This is probably because Fall Advantage applications and acceptances are rolling out right now. That being said, I would like to highlight one of the lovely features of this blog that sadly never gets used: the Q&A button on the bar above.

Maybe you haven't seen it, maybe you're ignoring it on purpose, I don't know. But I figured I would point it out so that if anyone had any specific questions about ANYTHING, then I would be able to answer them. Because frankly I rather have some interaction on here than thinking I'm writing in bed at night to no one.

So I extend the Q&A button to you to use as you may or even refer to. Just a thought, let's see how it goes.

Character Performer Auditions and Other News

Okay, I HATE long vlogs, but there was just so much to tell you guys that I PROMISE it's worth watching the whole thing because I went to character performer auditions to extend through August and I have lots of news. Please watch, well worth it I promise!

Meet and Greet with Dan Campbell

Today I had another Meet and Greet, this time with Dan Campbell an Entertainment Leader at Disney's Animal Kingdom's Flights of Wonder. Dan started working with Disney when he was like a junior in high school and began as a character performer! He has a lot of entertainment experience and has been in many different fields.

When I got there I got to watch the Flights of Wonder show from the tech booth. For those of you who don't know, Flights of Wonder is a free flighted bird show and it's one of my favorites in all of the Disney parks! After the show was over, I got a backstage tour and got to see where the keep all the birds. It reminded me of my uncle's bird farm growing up, that's right folks, my uncle owned a bird farm!

Then Dan and I had some time to sit down and just chat more about my aspirations, etc. He even showed me some photos of when he was friends with Winnie the Pooh back in the 80's! It was awesome. Overall, it was a very nice Meet and Greet and I'm glad I now have a contact in the entertainment area of this company.

Sick: Calling In and The Point System

Yesterday around 3:00pm I started feeling sick and by the end of last night I knew it was something more. I think I have the flu so today I called in. "Calling in" is when you call the Labor Service Center and say you're not coming into work for either sick or personal. Calling in gives you one point on your record card. Your record card stays with you no matter where you go in the company and no matter how long you stay with the company. Here's the point break down:

1/2 point for being less than two hours late, even if you're one second late
1 point for calling in or being more than two hours late
3 points = 1 reprimand

Now I can't really recall, it was spieled to me so quickly, but there's a certain number of reprimands or points you can get in 30, 60, and 90 days before you get terminated. I do know that three "no shows," which is not calling in and not showing up for work, results in immediate termination.

I'm definitely still not feeling well, but I have work at 7:45am, so we'll see how it all plays out!

Photo Update

We've had a lot of fun days at the parks. We met the princesses at Magic Kingdom, ate breakfast at the Tusker House with the characters, saw Illuminations, and much more! It's not always just on our off days, most often it's just right after work, we run to the park to get that last ride in!

First EHH Shift at the Magic Kingdom

Tonight I picked up an "Extra Hours" (EHH) shift at the Magic Kingdom doing Strollers from 9:15pm-12:45am. I got there SUPER early because I wanted to give myself enough time to park, ride the Westclock bus to the entrance of the utilidoors, navigate the utilidoors, and figure out where to come up into the Magic Kingdom. Earlier in the day I went to costuming to pick up the wrong costume.......the WRONG costume, like an idiot. It was a pretty similar costume, but the wrong costume nonetheless.

WRONG COSTUME! HA!

Because it didn't take me as long as I expected to get through the utilidoors and everything, my leader let me clock in 45 minutes early and get paid, woo! Stroller was really easy! The first position I took over was "Tunnel 4." Basically I just stood in front of one of the tunnels with one of those glow sticks that are right pasts the turnstiles and told people who were exiting the park where to bring their stroller rentals. The best part was, I got the watch Disney's Main Street Electrical Parade! It always reminds me of my grandma and I had a great spot to watch it.

Tunnel 4 made me realize that I don't know the Magic Kingdom that well. There were a lot of basic question I had a hard time answering and I know had I been in Disneyland I would've been able to answer almost anything!!!

After I got switched out of Tunnels 4 I did Back Room for the rest of the night, which was literally only stacking and rolling strollers. It was pretty boring but the people I worked with were cool and my manager was awesome! I think I'll definitely pick up another Stroller shift! It was definitely cool to work one night in the Magic Kingdom, but I definitely wouldn't want to work there full time. Hats off to the people that work their full time!

Disney Heritage: Week Two

This week's Heritage class was about "Walt and Roy: The Original Dream Team." I had another tear jerker moment when we watched some interviews with the Disney family regarding Walt's death. At the end of our session we got to play with toy monorails, which was a lot of fun! Heritage is definitely my favorite of my two classes because I get to learn about one of my favorite figures: Walt Disney.

Very First Meet and Greet

Today, I had my very first "Meet and Greet." This is a common term around the Disney company for short meetings with professionals from around the company. They are totally up to you to set them up, but they are highly encouraged nonetheless. It's pretty much the main way to network while on your program, something you do not want to miss out on while you're here, especially if you plan on staying with Disney. 

Because I've never really done a Meet and Greet before, I made it easy on myself and started with my teacher, David Horvath, he teaches both my classes so I figured he'd be a great resource, plus I'd get to know my teacher better! He was a great resource indeed, he gave me a lot of advice for moving forward with my future Meet and Greets as I already have a few more set up, including: 

Dan Campbell - Disney's Animal Kingdom Entertainment

Emily Carreon - Global Content Development (Yellow Shoes)

David basically explained that each Meet and Greet should last about thirty minutes, to respect the other persons' time. You should come prepared with some questions and a basic vision of what you want to get out of the meeting. David also helped me by telling me that I HAD to go back and finish my degree and that it was okay doing so. It obviously feels super hard to leave when I have started making connections here and can see where my career could be headed, but he made me feel okay about returning for my degree.

I'm really looking forward to both of these and I even have a "Spotlight on Disney's Dream Weddings" coming up soon! Many departments do these "Spotlights" when the have a lot of people interested in Meet and Greets, so they invite many people at once.

In total I have already emailed twelve professionals on property to set up Meet and Greets and am waiting to hear back. I'm excited that I get this opportunity at all, and frankly I don't think there's such a thing as OVER networking.

4 Four Keys Basics Cards

Walt Disney Cast Members have the opportunity to receive or give out Four Keys Basics cards and today I was lucky enough to get three in one day, and another two days before! Two of them were for getting "BINGO's" for this BINGO card we got to get donations for Disney's Worldwide Conservation Fund, which is pretty easy to do if you simply ask your guests to donate the rest of their change and round up to the nearest dollar on their purchase! But the other two I received today were for the way that I interacted with guests and just doing my job the best that I could do! It was such an honor to get these two from two of my managers and I am so appreciative. Yes, it may be a little piece of paper, but to me it's another reason to keep doing what I'm doing and keep doing it well, and even work a little harder! I'm excited to get more cards and I'm going to keep working just as hard, if not harder, to receive more!

Inspections

About three times a term all apartments undergo inspections to check on the cleanliness of each apartment. If you ask me, I think it's a little silly considering they literally white glove our surfaces.......... I get it, they're your properties and you want them to be treated well, but we're all adults here, come on. Regardless of what I think though, they still had to be done. You are given a time window of when inspections will be, about ten days, but you are not told what day your apartment will be inspected, which means your apartment must remain spotless until you finally get inspected.

On the third day of inspections we were finally inspected and we passed. Although we did not get the "White Glove" award (you get cookies or something as a prize), I'm glad we didn't fail because failing means you get fined. We passed in every section except in my bedroom's "trash" section because we hadn't taken out the trash... -.- I find it pretty funny that that's the only section we failed because I was the one being the most uptight about inspections, haha I guess that's my karma.

Below is the page in the Programs Guide about inspections, spelling out what is required and what is inspected.

Even though my roommates hated having to clean the apartment every night with the chance of inspections in the morning, my OCD self LOVED having the apartment as clean as it was and with that in mind, I'm not exactly hating the idea of the next inspection!

Exploring Marketing: Week One

Bright and early this morning, at 8:30am I had my first class for Exploring Marketing. I have the same teacher that teaches my Disney Heritage Class, David Horvath, and he's still just as awesome as ever today. He did his typical introduction, which I had already heard before, so the new part of the class for me was the guest speaker, Randi, who works in the marketing department! It was awesome to hear from her because she literally went over every segment of Disney's marketing department and helped me narrow down where I could see myself based on what each department is responsible for.

Thanks to all her insight and her break down, I could definitely see myself in any of the following departments:

• Content Development/Broadcast Production-Digital content development: Responsible for digital shorts, YouTube/Facebook videos, DVC Virtual Events
• Digital Marketing
• Public Relations
• Special Event Management

My Disney Heritage class makes me very excited about working for the company, but my Disney Marketing class makes me excited to have a future in the company! After Randi's lesson, I was so excited to meet with Randi one on one, so I emailed her immediately after to set a meet and greet up.

Exploring Disney Heritage: Class One

Today I had my first Exploring Disney Heritage class! It was exactly what I need as I'm starting to fall into the slump of my forty hour weeks. Today's class was simply an introduction to the course and our instructor, David. David has been with the company for a VERY long time and his story was actually awesome to hear, it made me excited to start anywhere in the company because he moved around all over the company!

The actual content portion of the class was the last little bit, but it was awesome! We learned about the Disney family tree and took a closer look at Marceline, Missouri where Walt Disney was raised! It made me really, really want to visit the tiny town and see Walt's roots. My favorite part was where they talked about the barn they rebuilt on the Disney's original farm. The old barn had deteriorated past the point of restoration, but the new barn, fashioned after the old one, had allowed for new traditions. Every cast member that comes to visit the property is asked to write a message to Walt on the walls of the new barn. It made me tear up...corny I know.

The whole class made me excited for next week's class and the entire class as a whole. I have my Exploring Marketing class on Thursday with the same teacher and I'm definitely looking forward to that!

Trip to Cocoa Beach

Applied to Professional Internships

This evening I applied to six Professional Internships. I accessed these applications through the My Disney Career tab on The Hub and the applications were very simple considering Disney had most of my information already. Here are the internships I applied to for Summer 2014 and below are a list of the progress thus far on the My Disney Careers Dashboard.