Merry Christmas!

and Happy Holidays! So the day has come and past and it was amazing. I think that it will be okay that I'm away next year because I've been having such a good time that the memories will carry over. Plus Christmas in Disney World? Not so bad. I hope the holiday season is treating everyone fabulously and Happy New Year!

My Big Surprise!

100 Days!

It's only 100 days until I go! I can't believe it! i remember reading Nykki's blog and her 100 day post and it seems like barely any time has gone by at all! But she's already been there in Florida for a couple weeks now. I'm so excited. 100 days is not that long. 100 days and I'll be watching fireworks and suntanning and working in Walt Disney World! I will be living in Florida in 100 days. Just 100 days...double digits tomorrow!
and it's 12 days until Christmas!
and it's snowing!!!!
yay!

Disneyland Trip

So if you click on the title it will take you to my youtube video of the christmas fireworks. I'm trying to figure outhte best way to be able to add videos and such to my blog. Make it an all around experience:) Haha. Soooo Disneyland! Amazing. Obviously. I was a little nervous because i hadn't been to a disney park in about 3 years, and was thinking what if i didn't love it as much anymore? But i completely did. Sitting and watching the fireworks night after night i realized that I am going to be able to do that every night! I'll be able to watch a parade whenever i feel like it, go to a favourite restuarant, ride just space mountain and all these things whenever I have free time. I can go for half an hour or 18 hours, because i'll have a free pass! How unreal is that?! I just can't believe how lucky I am. I talk about moving to florida all the time, but when I stop and actually think about what I'm getting the opportunity to do, it's unbelieveable. Not only do i get to work in Disneyworld talking about Canada, I get to learn skills as a fine dining server that i'll be able to use anywhere in the world, i can take disney U courses, volunteer, join clubs/groups, drive down to key west, miami, the atlantic, the gulf of mexico. I can see spaceships launch and swim with dolphins and see aligators just walking down the street! I can watch fireworks behind a castle or across a lagoon from a sandy beach. I can have a campfire sing-a-long most days of the week or attend a luau. It's the most incredible bubble world, and then you can go outside of that and you're in central florida - the attraction capital of the world! Think of the rollercoasters! I'm beyond grateful and excited and awestruck by it all. But i'm suppose to be talking about my recent trip to disneyland. I love Disneyland. It's the original park, the one Walt paced out and created and built and lived in. When I'm there I can imagine him walking through the park, asking people how they are enjoying themselves, what they would change, picking up things from the ground and people watching. I love that when I'm there i'm walking where he did and i even sat in his prized fire engine that he use to drive around before the park opened. My Dad and I had a really good time, the park was really empty the first 5 days we were there, our first day we rode 18 rides and could have done more. We did big thunder mountain 4 times because it was closed the rest of the week. Friday and Saturday were crazy busy comparatively, with most rides having a 30-45 minute wait and up. I had dole whip and a couple cherros. Also a mickey mouse ice cream sandwich, which are the best things ever and the first treat i ever had in the park. DCA was pretty empty and I used the single rider line for soarin' and screamin' a few times so i was straight on. The new toy story midway mania is amazing! Soo cool and fun. I beat my dad, numerous times - and on Buzz. haha. He blamed the guns, i think i just have skillllss :) Overall it was an amazing trip, we had great weather and a lot of fun. I'll put some photos up!

We flew into Las Vegas - they had slots in the airport! then from there to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana. Although we were only outside in Vegas for a short time it was pretty cool. I couldn't believe all the slots in the airport, you'd think people leaving Vegas would have already lost enough :)

Our 2nd day in California we went to Newport Beach, it was beautiful! we sat out on the beach and watched the waves crash. There were some kids swimming/playing in the waves. We also saw whales! it was really cool. I got a really bad picture of them! haha. It was absolutely gorgeous and really fun.

The Castle all dressed up for Christmas! Every day they have a big lighting of the castle thing where they play some song and hve a voice say something along the lines of wishing for a white christmas and then...it lights up and starts snowing! It's so cute how everyone gets sooo excited for the snow (foam) and run over to it and freak out! Hearing peoples reactions is one of my favourite things about the parks.

Oh! and i recieved another package from Disney! It was a lot like my first package, but said my first official day of work is March 28th, 4 days after I arrive. And some stuff about insurance and the shuttle from the airport.

That's me and the Disney family crest and the castle of course.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays...

I'm asking for a suitcase for xmas!

This and That

Disneyland - So this week has been amazing. I know this may sound crazy, but I hadn't been to a disney park in about 3 years and i was worried that maybe i wouldn't love it as much..but i do! I really really really truly do. I could go every single day and just ride random things and people watch: the little kids in their princess dresses, the funny family dynamics (stressy parents vs. chill parents), fanny pack wearers, those big groups that all wear the same outfits..love them! haha The other day we were in downtown disney and the fireworks started. This littl girl was so excited and exclaimed to her mum that 'it was the best day of her whole life!' That's what makes it all amazing.

Florida News - My friend just heard that she got into CareerStart! She's going down february 11th, so that's exciting! It's cool there will be another person down there from my hometown. She's American, as she can do careerstart, and will likely be in either chatham or vista, but it'll be cool still to have a little bit of home in Florida. She's only down until August though, but all the same I'm excited about it!

I found a cool countdown so heres the breakdown until Florida:
110 days
2652 hours
159166 minutes
9549992 seconds

wooooo!

I'll most likely post some pics and more random things from Disneyland once I leave.
We bought 5 days and were here for 10 so we thought maybe we'd get one more day if it wasn't too expensive, so we checked the price with a really ncie lady at the ticket booth and it was only $5 for an extra day! So we got 2. 2 extra days for $10! Yeeyahhh 7 day park hopper.
I love Disney...

Not exactly WDW related...

So today my dad and I booked a vacation to Disneyland! I'm really excited. We're going down the 28th and coming back december 6th. Our flights are kind of crazy but it should be fun, as long as the California fires are in control and the winds aren't blowing crazy smoke everywhere. I can't believe that is all happening. But I'm excited to go, it will be a nice escape, and an amazing prelude to my year in Florida. One of my friends from home is trying out for the careerstart program, so she might be going to Florida sometime this year too! How crazy would that be? Let's wish her luck, and I'll update after the trip with some fabulous news from Disneyland..my favourite park:)
8 days until Disneyland!
125 days until Walt Disney World!
...wow

Wee Update

So I've found out a lot of the people I met at the interviews got in, which is really exciting as they are super cool people. Cale (whose name I spelt wrong in the interview post..sry!) is also going on March 24th, as is Heather!! Also Jason, who I didn't get a chance to meet at the interviews and another guy whose names seems to always escape me. But it's pretty crazy exciting we're all going to be moving in, doing traditions and training together!! There are a couple people going in february that i've heard of and lots going in may and june so I'm really glad I got March..it's perfect timing! Tomorrow I'm flying back to BC because of my crazy mono, so it'll be nice to be home and celebrate the big news with my family and start the next wait...for my disney package to arrive!!

I GOT IN!

Ahhh!!! I'm working for Disney! Around 3:20 Kristen called from Yummy jobs. She said that they would like to offer me a position in Food and beverage! i freaked out!!! okay...I kind of almost started crying, but I've been waiting for this for so so many years and it's actually happening and I'm really going!!! My dates are March 24th 2009 until March 19th 2010. She asked if I accepted the job offer and of course i said YES!!!! She must have had the best day calling everyone and telling them and hearing their excited replies:) So the official count is 4 months, 1 week and 6 days until I am a real Disney Cast Member!! I feel so corny but it really is my dream coming true. And I know that it isn't always going to be fun and lovely, but I know that in the end it will be a life changer. It already is. I'm just so overwhelmed and excited, 4 months and I'm living in Florida! It's the perfect amount of time to work, earn some money and get things together. People have already been telling me that they are coming and it's so crazy! I'm working for Disney in Florida! wow.

waiting..

a lot has happened lately non-disney wise in my life. this waiting is just making things more frusterating. lol. The longer I wait the worse my feeling is about it. I hope that if they don't give me a date at least i'll get wait listed. Then it's just more waiting. Jeremy, one of the guys from my interview, was already told he is going on December 2nd. I didn't say that i wanted to go that earlier, but it's still wierd hearing someone else got in already and i'm waiting high and dry. We're going to hear next week. Let's all cross our fingers.

Moxies Dinner & the Face to Face!

So on Monday night a bunch of us decided to meet up for dinner to get to know each other. I was kind of nervous when I showed up but it ended up being really fun. I sat beside Kerry, who has worked on the Disney wonder cruise ship as well as done the ICP and she went to Queen's so we had a lot to talk about, as well as Kale on the other side who is in New York right now and going to a bunch of shows so we talked aobut Spring Awakening. It was really fun. Jessica from yellowknife and Megan from London were also at our table and super cool. Kale, Jessica and I all got Long Island Icebergs which were HUGE but really good and Kerry got a Raspberry temptation. Yes, boozing before the interview. haha. Plus dinners of course:) My salad was kind of gross but the soup was goood:) It was funny Megan asked to have the rest of her pasta wrapped up to go and the dish person accidentally threw it out so they made her an entire new one to bring home! sweeet. haha. There were so many of us we had 2 tables but I only got to talk to those at the other table a bit. They seemed pretty cool though too. Then kerry was going to teh subway stop right before mine so we traveled together and arranged to meet at Don Mills the next morning to share a cab to the hotel.

THE INTERVIEW!!

Kerry wanted to be nice and early so we planned to catch the subway at 7am, so i got up at 6, not a usual thing for me but I was surprisingly awake which was good. I got there around 7:10 because I forgot my papers and had to go back for them. oopps! We met up at Don Mills, which is the farthest subway station (had to switch trains twiceee) and got to the hotel around 8. There were a bunch of the people that we had met the day before already waiting, including Heather who I sat in the presentation with. She graduated Drama from York and seems really nice. That's the problem with meeting and starting to get to know all these people, they're so cool and I really want us all to get to go downa dn work together so much! It just adds another level of nerves to the waiting process now. Anyways, so we waiting and people started filling up the lobby, then we moved to where the room was. They signed us in and we filled out the application form (to joyful mary poppins tunes!). Then Roger started the presentation, he is hilarious. wow. haha. It was really fun to watch and he made jokes at Valerie, the reallly excited girl in the presentation. He asked three trivia questions, which i knew all the answers too but I didn't get picked. Heather answered the water park question and got this cool magnet thing with all the different feelings with mickey heads and then you put the little 'I feel .... today' magnet over top of the one you are feeling like. I don't know if that explained it well, but they have them for lots of things but it was a cool disney international progrma one. wooo. We sat in the front row:) haha. After the presentation they gave us our interview times and mine was at 11:00am! and it was 10:40! So I went and talked to Kristen who checked over my form, asked what I would like on my name tag (Kate Royston, British Columbia. hahaha) ohh i want a name tag soo bad they are sooo cool. Then I went in a waited. There were a brother and sister both trying out and they were pretty funny, i waited with them. Then Jennifer called us up. I was interviewed with a guy named Stephan. It was kind of wierd I've never been interviewed at the same time as someone before. She asked why we wanted to be in the program, what experience we have in food and beverage, where we've traveled, if we can speak other languages, to tell her about a time when something negative happened and how we used good guest service, made sure we understood about working hours, if we were okay living with other people, and finally to tell her one thing about our hometowns. Throughout the presentation they really stressed that we were there as canadian representatives and people would ask about our culture all the time and stuff, so i thought there would be more about Canada. Then she asked is we had any questions and I couldn't remember my question and he said he didn't have any, and i kind of froze so I just said how I've really researched and read about the positions and jobs alot and that it helps that i've been there and seen the location before and stuff. I wanted to ask if we could request being in a bigger apartment with more people or if it's just random. Darnnnn me. Anyways, so then we just shook hands again, I made some dorky comment about her nametag and it was all over. Wow. All this waiting and preparing and I didn't even nail it. My answers were mediocre and it was kind of frusterating afterwards because I thought of all the right things I should have said. So we will just have to wait and see I guess. I'm nervous that I'll have been okay, and at the beginning of the day and she'll forget me or something. Then I shared a cab back to the subway station with Zim, and came back to my aunt's for Diwali. Best holiday...such gooood food. Rather christmas-esque. So that was my interview...now we just wait 2-3 weeks for eternal happiness or ....

Tomorrow's the big day!

Wow, I can't believe it's actually here. There has been sooo much going on in my life lately that I've barely been able to be ecstatic about this interview!!! I've been stressy though haha. I'm pretty nervous just because I've been waiting for this for soo long! I know that most people say that the phone interview is the hard one and that the face to face is really fun...but common, how can you not be freaking out! Tomorrow determines if I get to live in Florida for a year! I've been trying to snooop past questions and going over answers, as well as brushing up of my trivia, though really i'm only in the know about california so we'll see how the florida questions go. Tonight some of us are meeting at Moxie's out by the hotel for dinner so that we'll know a few people tomorrow, which will be nice. Wish me luck!

One Week!

a week today is the big day!!! im so excited !! :)

31 days 13 hours and 40 minutes

Until the face to face starts!! It's on October 28th in Toronto. I'm pretty pumped that I finally know when it's all going to happen. Here's the email that Kristen sent:

Greetings Kathryn!

Many thanks for confirming your preferred interview location of Toronto. During the interviews you will be able to attend a presentation about all about the Magic known as Disney, and gain information about the Cultural Representative Program and the perks that come with it. After the presentation, you will have the opportunity to experience an interview like you never have before with the Walt Disney World recruiters!

Your interview will be held at:

Wyndham Garden Hotel in Toronto
185 Yorkland Blvd.
Toronto, Ontario
M2J 4R2
Telephone: 416-493-9000
Website: http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/YYZWG/main.wnt

You will need to arrive at 9:00am as the Disney presentation will start at promptly at 9:30am. After the presentation your interview will be scheduled. You must be prepared to spend the whole day and will be required to dress in professional / business attire.

It is essential that you bring the following items to the interview:

3 Photocopies of your main passport page (picture page/passport number)
Your Passport
An up to date copy of your resume
A black pen to fill out application forms

If you have any questions about the location, please do contact me immediately.

Once again, congratulations on reaching this stage in the recruitment process and I look forward to meeting you as I will indeed be there bright and early on the 28th to meet you!


Kristen Thornton
Yummy Jobs

The whole thing is a form email, except the last two lines I think because I did ask if she was going to be there. haha. Anyways, that pretty much sums up what I'll be thinking about for the next month. I'm actually starting to believe that this is all actually happening and I may really be living in Florida for a year. Crazzy! I'm going to have to start brushing up on my interview skills and my disney knowledge (hard to believe i know, but a lot of other things have been crammed into my brain lately). So I may post once or twice between now and then but really the big news will take place two weeks after the 28th of October! Yikes! If it were any later I wouldn't be able to study for exams.

Update on Face to face

Hey! So it's been a while, but news seems to take forever with Disney. So Kristen (the yummy jobs lady) sent an email giving all of our email addresses to the other people who have applied and that was cool, i have a bunch of them on facebook now and they seem pretty cool. Plus it's nice knowing other ppl are waiting and excited like mee. So every fall before this the interviews were always on the west coast, so I've been expecting to fly out west for the interviews then spend a week at home with my family and friends and stuff. Then they have the spring interviews in the spring. However this year, due to the switch to Yummy Jobs from Cast-a-way perhaps, Kristen emailed and the face to face interviews are in Toronto at the end of October. So alas I am not flying anywhere, just taking the train to TO for a couple days to see the aunts and have my interview. It will be good though, and obviously i should be excited to save the money, but there were some people i was very excited to see back home. So i'm actually kind of dissapointed about that, but more just really pumped that it's actually happening sooon!!!! In two months i'll know the exact date that I'll (hopefully!!!) be leaving to fly to Orlando to start my year in Florida actually working for the mouse!!! Its unbelieveable, even though two months is pretty long. I applied June 1st, over 3 months ago, so what's 2 month right? I'll post again when i have the exact date!! yay:) it's all in the works of becoming reality after soo long. i'm pumped.

YAY!!

I GOT A FACE TO FACE!!!! AHHHH!!! this is soooooo exciting! soo sooo exciting! i check my email every morning hoping for an email, and today there was one there. all the title says in Walt Disney World so i was nervous opening it. Here's the email:

Dear Kathryn,

Thanks so much for taking your time in the recent telephone interviews for the Walt Disney World International Programs.

It was an absolute pleasure speaking with you and getting to learn a bit more about yourself and your unique culture. I was impressed by the enthusiasm and personality that you had for this program and would be delighted to invite you to the final interviews sometime in late October!

Currently we are still working with Walt Disney World to verify the exact locations we will be holding the final interviews this fall and next spring. No matter where the interviews are held, we will still invite you to come, as I know many people have expressed interest in traveling. I will be contacting you in the upcoming weeks with more information about the interview locations as well as cities we anticipate to interview in, to assist in easing the travel distances.

Along with the interview city information, I will also be inviting you to submit your email address to share with others interviewing, so please do keep an eye on your emails and if your contact information changes please do inform me.

Once again, congratulations on reaching this stage of the recruitment process and I very much look forward to contacting you with more information in the very near future!

Have a Magical Day,


Kristen
Yummy Jobs

Sounds fabulous doens't' it?! haha. i'm going crazy inside right now as i'm sure you can tell. We're getting closer guys, one more interview and i could be flying to florida in as little as 5 months! ahh:) yay. i lovee disney. haha

Phone Interview!!!

So as you can tell from the title I just had my phone interview!!!! I had woken up early because I thought Kristin might call and was lying there waiting and she did!!! I had been working on what to say and praticing all the day before (and for a while before that!) and finally it was time. I think I did alright, I know i was smiling the whole time:) So she asked routine questions like my email address, age, if I had a passport, where I'd heard of the program and if I wanted to work in food & beverage, attractions or merchandise. I said food and beverage. Then she asked why I wanted to work for Disney, and to tell her something about Canada and then my hometown. I think i didn't answer the best on Canada as a whole but that my hometown answer was good. It's hard to tell someone about Canada as a whole in 3 seconds. the Conversation went super fast !!! and it wasn't as scary as I had thought. She asked if I had any questions and I asked how many people they were looking for and she said that it's actually just that you are competing with yourself nothte other people and that it's based on your own merit. If Disney likes everyone they will take everyone and then just put them in different programs ! So that was kind of cool, I just have to be me and no matter how many other super disney kids there are we could all make it:) Also I asked about the face to face location and time and she said that they were still deciding on which side of the country to have the interviews first, and i said that i would go to either because i go to school in ontario and she said that lots of people had been saying they were willing to fly (or take a mini-break as Kristin said). It's cool that there are other people as eager as me!! But here's the thing, she never really said that they wanted me to go to the face to faces. She said that they would be in touch in the next while about the next steps of the process and that when i move to ontario i should send her an email with my address in case they want to send me some post. Which sound super positive and good, but she never right out said it sooo....we'll just have to....wait! more. again. wheeeeeee

An email from Yummmy!

So...I got a letter today from Kristen at Yummy Jobs and I made it to the telephone interview...although I'm pretty sure everyone does. anyways here's the email:

Greetings,

I hope you are having a Great Summer and are excited about the possibility of going to Walt Disney World next year on the Cultural Representative Program! Within the next 3 weeks, we will be contacting you by phone to get to know you a bit more. This call will be an informal interview that will assist Yummy Jobs in learning a bit more about you and why you would like to go to Walt Disney World.

As I understand that you may have a summer job that may cause you to miss my call, rest assure, I will still call back! If for some reason you are unavailable when I call, please do email me (kristen@yummyjobs.com) with a preferred contact time or a new number you wish to be contacted on. Or alternatively you may call toll free 1-877-YJ Canada (between 8am- 12pm Eastern Standard Time) and ask for Jason.

Please do note, that due to requiring a work visa for this program, we will be asking about your passport. If you do not have one, please do apply for one as soon as possible, as you will be required to bring your passport if selected for the final interview with Walt Disney World later this year or early next year depending on your province. If you have any questions about this requirement, please do not hesitate to ask. Also, we are proud to say that we are still accepting Resumes for the Cultural Representative Program, so if you have friends that be interested in going to Walt Disney World with you, do feel free to have them submit their resume to me. Do have them quote your name in the email so we are able to ensure that they are contacted for the telephone interviews as well! I hope you are as excited as we are for your telephone call, and I look forward to chatting to you soon!

Have a Magical Day,
Kristen
Yummy Jobs

So know I'm going to be edgey every time the phone rings! What if it it's Kristen?! Although I'm also pretty sure I'm going to miss my call because I'm working all the time. Yikes yikes yikes. It'll work out then because I can be calm and not taken off gaurd. I know I'm going to just ramble about how much I love disney. haha. Anyways, just thought I'd let ya know that I may be writing super happy or super sad sometime soon. Cheers:)

I'm not too fond of this waiting thing...

So I obviously haven't heard anything back yet, but i've been keeping up to date with my board reading on wdwip and it's exciting to see some other Canadians sending in their resumes and getting emails saying only 4-6 weeks now! yay! i'm definately hoping for the 4 weeks, as waiting is driving me crazy. i can't lie..sometimes when i can't sleep or i'm driving up and down the island i try and practise figuring out what i'm going to say to the questions. haha. really dorky aren't i? but i'm so excited! i've been wanting this for so long and it's just totally cool to think that half a eyar from now i could be packing and actually heading down there. Ive just picked my classes for my second year of uni and have all half year classes incase i have to stop and go to florida in feb as hoped!! it's just crazzyyy to even think about. This fellow from work who is also a huge disney geek (i've never met one before, it was so exciting!) anyways he keeps saying oh you'll get in and of course they'll accept you and him and his fiancee are booking a trip down there around that time so how cool would it be if i was there working and they visited?! my first group of friends coming downf or a visit already! and he would die for all the sick behind the scenes things and my amazing name tag. i'm pretty pumped to see my naem on one of those name tags - talk about the best feeling ever! haha. so anyways i shall be on my way, i just wanted to let you know how completely excited I am!!!! though you already knew that didn't you? :)

To all who come to this happy place...Welcome!

Hey there! So i originally started my blog on June 11th under a different site name. However i then realized where i got the brilliant name for my site - from someone who was already on the program! So not wanting to step on any toes I've decided to change it, so here is my original posting from June 11th, 2008, a quick Intro to me!! :

Hello! My name is Kate and I love disney. there I said it. now everyone knows the truth. When I was 4 years old and first visited Disneyland i decided i was going to live there. unfortuantely at an age a bit older i found out that in fact just because Walt had an apartment there, doesn't mean i could. Then when i was 12 years old i went to Florida for the first (and only so far) time with my Mum. We met a cast member in the Canada pavillion at Epcot from Nanaimo, a town 45 minutes from my own and she told us all about the incredible job she had down there through the cultural representative programme. i knew i was meant for the job ever since, and now it's finally become time for me to apply. I'm so excited! About a week ago i sent in my resume and cover letter and heard back that they recieved my email, and i would hear further about the application process in 8-10 weeks!!! 8-10 weeks!!! that's FOREVER from now!!!!! i think about it all the time and i just wish they would message me soon. i even have it mark on the calendar when about they are suppose to email me again. those will be super intense weeks. So really i plan to use this space mainly once i'm in florida to update everyone on the amazing adventures of being a cast member, however i thought the whole application process might be cool too. So i hope all is well, and sorry if it's a while before my next post, things will pick up when i start to hear things from the mouse:)