Let The Memories Begin!

I AM HERE!!! What a crazy week, too. The day before check in I met up with all of my roommates in downtown disney and we decided to go to check in at 5AM to secure the apartment we wanted. I was first to get to the apartment, a 2 bedroom at chatham, and was pleasantly surprised at the size. I was expecting it to be MUCH smaller, but our bathroom is a decent size and our closet seems to be enough space. However, the kitchen supplies they provide are...not the best. We ended up having more pots, pans, and dishes either through somebody bringing them or buying them, but was we were given was extremely limited and/or poor quality.

Check In

We had my Mom drop us off at vista way at the security gate so we didn't have to waste time parking across the street. The only other people there were a group of 3 girls, so we were basically second, which was perfect. Security had us wait where they are stationed until it was time to go back to the welcome pavillion. Once their security tent filled up they began lining people up outside of the security gate, so we got there at an ideal time. Around 8AM they let us go in and we still were second in line. Everything went so smoothly! We got the apartment we wanted, no problems with the paperwork, we were done before noon. Essentially check in consists of signing contracts, agreements, etc., getting your apartment and housing ID, parking decal if you brought a car, your work location (liberty square at MK REPRESENT), setting up a paycard or direct deposit, 1-9 form, turning in your on boarding paperwork, and background check. I think it definitely helps to get there early, I heard chatham and patterson filled up very quickly. After check in you could go to your apartment and most people had a housing meeting later in the day (or the next day if you were in the back of the line)

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Traditions

I don't know if traditions is supposed to be a really fun thing, but I think I was a bit mislead. We learned a bit about the history of disney and some key disney ideals they want the cast members to embrace in their time with the company. I won't sugar-coat the fact that having early morning traditions and being sleep deprived due to excitement doesn't make long presentations like these very thrilling. Not to mention they don't feed you so you walk out starved (or maybe that was just me...) We did do a walking tour which was kind of exciting, especially where we saw parts of the fantasyland that they are reimagining and it looks amazing! Oh, did I forget to mention we got that little ID that let's us get into the parks for free? YES WE DID. Totally hit up Magic kingdom afterwards, although it started pouring rain so it was kind of a fail.

Orientation

Today was my Magic Kingdom orientation, aka "Once Upon A Time...Is Now". This was a hundred times more exciting than traditions. Granted, it was FREEZING cold and I had to get up super early, but going into Magic Kingdom before the park is open is kind of awesome, right? Our guides told us some inside information, and little known facts about the parks which was really interesting. We even got to go on rides!! After the tour we were divided up by roles and sent to costuming to get our costumes. Unfortunately, they didn't have my size so they have to make some alterations to a dress that I will have to pick up tomorrow before work (really looking forward to that...).

My week is full of training and stuff so hopefully I will be able to squeeze in another post somewhere!