VISA PAPERWORK!

You didn't think I forgot that I start WORKING AT DISNEY WORLD in just 2 months and 15 days did you?! I think about it pretty much every second of every day....I'm. SO. EXCITED!!!

In my spare down time I've been a huge geek and looking up vegan trip reports.  I clearly have not been very vegan while at university (hello Jimmy Fallon ice cream!! Alright, besides that I haven't been so bad) but I find it really interesting all the incredible signature dishes chefs will make you if you're vegan.  I did just find out my favourite chef ever, and a favourite to pretty much any Disney vegan who knows what's up, is Chef TJ, and he is now at the Grand Floridian at 1900 Park Fare and the Grand Floridian Cafe instead of Ohana. He was the main reason I loved Ohana, as it's a hugely meat-entric meal, so we'll have to see next time how it goes.  BUT all this food talk is not the reason I'm writing about the CRP, this email is:

Greetings!

In the next 2 weeks we will be mailing your visa documents to you, at the same address that we sent your welcome pack to.  If your address has since changed please do let me know by Thursday, June 2^nd at 11am EST (8am PST). 

As a reminder as you hold a Canadian Passport you will not need to attend an embassy appointment.  Instead when you receive your visa document from Walt Disney World, you will be all set!  When you travel to the US and go through the US immigrations at the airport or border, at that point you will receive your visa stamp in your passport.  You will just need to present your visa documents, white I 94 card (included with your visa document) and Disney Offer Letter and politely inform the immigrations agent that you will be working in the US.

If you do have any questions regarding this, please do not hesitate to ask.

Have a Great day!

Kristen Thornton

Yummy Jobs

Hot diggity it's all so real!!! I didn't tell you all, but I received my Welcome package at my house in Canada and my Dad opened it over the phone and told me what was inside.  It sounded pretty identical to my first welcome package, but I'll snag some photos when I return home in July.  I'm so excited to have my visa, and this email makes me feel like if there was a problem they would have already told me, so as soon as it arrives we should be all set to go! 

Honestly it has been a little hard being down in Orlando and not being part of the Disney Community.  Not in the sense of missing living in the Commons, but when people talk about Disney I swell up in pride, and then realize I technically probably don't count as employed by them as I have a contract, it just hasn't started yet.  I miss being able to just stroll into the parks and people watch, see the construction change daily and watch fireworks/parades.  I know I'll be doing all of that soon enough, but it's like there is a HUGE WALL, and I use to have access to the ladder, and I will soon again, but right now I'm left at the bottom hopping up and down trying to peak in. I.Can't.Wait!

I got this email last week:

Greetings Kate,

Many thanks for your police check.

Have a Great day!

Kristen Thornton

Yummy Jobs

So that is all taken care of as well!  Now I just need to book a flight, buy health insurance and mid-July pay the housing fee. YAY! 

Update and News!

I took this lovely snapshot myself! And without pulling over in the "Do not pull over here" spot!

Well first of all I'm sorry for falsely promising an exciting post the other day and then writing nothing. Also if you make that apple sundae don't over do it with the syrup and you should add toasted shredded coconut! Yummmm!

Now for an email from Kristen:

Greetings,

Once again Congratulations on being offered a role representing Canada on the Cultural Representative Program at Walt Disney World! I hope you are still very much excited for the adventure you are able to take to Walt Disney World. I just wanted to touch base with some information to assist you between now and your arrival of August 16^th.

Arrival Date of August 16^th: This arrival date is the date you will want to arrive in Florida, and is the day your housing will be ready. If you do decide to arrive earlier than this date, you will need to provide your own accommodation. However, you will not be starting work on the16^th, so please do not feel you need to arrive earlier. Instead, when you arrive you will have the 16^th of August to get use to the Florida weather, meet your new roommates, and meet all the other people around the world arriving to Disney with you. You would then start orientations the following days. For the orientation you will need to wear professional attire and this can be what you wore to the interviews. So do pack at least one professional outfit for Florida.

End Date of August 10^th, 2012: This is the day you will need to check out of your housing. You do have 30 days to travel after this date, and there will be many students around the world who I am sure would love to have you as a travel buddy!

Background/Police Check: This document is currently the most important for you to be concentrating on. However, this document does not need to be an advance check, instead you will want to visit your local police department to have the form completed. Once you have this form done, you will need to scan and email it or fax it directly to me. Please do this by June 1^st.

Step by Step Guide: To assist you in the adventure to Florida, Yummy Jobs has put together a Step by Step Guide that will answer many questions, such as about visas, police checks, and everything in between. To access this document, you are now able to log into your profile onwww.yummyjobs.com and view the “Documents” tab. Please be sure to read the Canadian Guide, as the other countries will vary in information.

Visas: Walt Disney World is currently working on these documents for you, which you will have about 2-4 weeks before your arrival to Florida.

Program Assessment Fee: As mentioned during the interview, you will need to pay the program assessment fee ($100 US) before your arrival to Florida. This fee acts as a deposit to reserve your room. You will be receiving an email from Walt Disney World regarding this fee about one month before your arrival to the US. You will not be able to pay this fee until you receive this email, so do keep an eye on your inbox in July!

And if at any time you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact myself. I will be here to assist you Every Step of the Way!

Have a Great Day,

Kristen Thornton

Yummy Jobs

I have noticed a lot of people asking if they have to arrive before their arrival date, and as Kristen pointed out above, you don't! The day you arrive you don't have to do anything but check in at Vista Way, and then they drive you over to your apartment (either at Patterson or the Commons) and you have the rest of the day to shop, meet people and do whatever you need to do. I won't be arriving early, I will be flying out the night of the 15th though red-eye style so that I can arrive in the morning and not crazy late. Plus as anyone who really knows me knows, I really like red eye flights, as well as layovers! I love layovers in random places and tend to take the most layover/stopovers I can get (as they also are usually the cheapest!). I also need to be at the front of the plane on the aisle. As you saw with my trip to Toronto I will never sit in a window seat again, and the thought of the middle seat? Where are you suppose to look when you're sleeping? So awkward! Plus I just like getting up and not feeling trapped in there by other people. Phew.

Now for much awaited very exciting news!

I'M GOING ON A ROAD TRIP AND GOING TO UNIVERSITY AND WORKING AT DISNEY WORLD!

There we go. You know that point in life when you have worked really hard and planned and dreamed and then all of a sudden you realize everything you've ever dreamed of is starting to happen and becoming real? That's the moment I'm having right now. And it's absolutely incredible. I have been very overwhelmed and stressed out the last couple of months and now it's as if I have taken a huge deep breath, let it all out and can see everything coming together. Here's the run down:

March 25th: That's today! A good place to start I figured... I returned home from an 8 hour day of work and have to work on packing up my room a bit more before going to bed for my shift tomorrow morning. I work tomorrow, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday so that's good!

March 27th: This is my sister's due date for my incredible niece or nephew! I wouldn't normally share such an intimate moment but my sister and brother-in-law allowed me to be at their midwife appointment to hear the baby's heartbeat and it was such an incredibly moving and momentous occurrence. I will admit I was moved to tears, I'm so amazed at this life growing inside my sister and the immense impact it will have on all of our lives, and already has had. I've never had a maternal instinct in my life but this whole experience has changed me and just thinking about meeting this little Munchkin gets me all verklempt. I'm going to buy it every single Disney thing ever ... don't tell Gareth! :) hehehe. I guessed the baby would be born yesterday (Thursday the 23rd) and I was wrong. Someone had to be the number 1 loser though, and I'm glad to claim the prize.

This is the halloween costume my niece or nephew will be wearing come October 31st, I don't care if it's a girl and Chewbacca is a boy. This is the costume her pug Lily will be wear to accompany Munchkin:

I dare anyone to try and say that is not the greatest combination of halloween costumes ever! I've actually been planning this since I found out my sister was pregnant. It doesn't even have to be halloween! So exciting!

March 31st: Gareth's birthday! yay!

April 1st: My last day of work at Hollyburn!! Yeeehaww! This is actually a really big boxing fundraiser (I'm pretty sure) and should be a somewhat interesting last shift!

This is the background on my computer currently. Or it was until it mysteriously got changed to a picture of Mr. Ryan Kesler, of Vancouver Canucks hockey, who may I say, is lovely.

*~*Precursor to Road Trip Itineray: This is all approximation and may not be reliable at all...you'll just have to wait and see!*~*

April 2nd: Jet setting off to Winnipeg this morning (after a layover in Saskatoon which I'm Super Excited for as it'll mean I've been to every province besides the Maritimes!) and arriving to my dear friend Ashley and her car for the beginning of our road trip!!! Ah, I'm actually super excited about this trip. We are driving down through Minnesota with such notable locations as Grand Forks, Fargo, St. Cloud (which I'm going to pretend is in reference to the Zac Efron movie) and Minneapolis (where my sister things I'll get lipped for my fake Minnesotian accent) to Wisconsin where we're staying in a little town called Eau Claire! Eau Claire is a Tree City, which means they have to celebrate Arbor Day and have a tree planting program and so I'm hoping it's pretty! Also it's suppose to be a great place for young people, and I like to consider myself youthful. It seems like it has a lot of factories/plants though as well, we'll see!

April 3: Pardeeville! Population: 1,982. LOVE IT! I'm so excited for this stop because this is actually a pretty special location...I won't say why now, but if you know, you'd want to go to! haha. I will mention that the town's biggest event is it's Watermelon Festival. Ohhhh small towns :) Departing Wisconsin we head towards the home of the President.. the Windy City it's self...CHICAGO! I can't believe I get to go to Chicago! It's so exciting! We're going to eat deep dish pizza, visit Hyde Park, watch some Blackhawk hockey (Ashley is a diehard Jonathan Toews fan, I'm scared I'll get kicked out of town if I say I'm from Vancouver), and hopefully do an amazing driveby past HARPO STUDIOS!! AHH! OPRAH!

This is not a picture of Oprah (I wish!). This is Janice. She is a secret clue as to why we are making a certain pit stop on the road trip.

how do my blogs always end with Oprah? I actually got super distracted and sent Oprah a letter. With that I need to sleep...so you will find out all about Chicago plans and beyond tomorrow!

Spoiler Alert: I'm going to be a Knight!

A little More Details..

Sorry I didn't actually say anything in my post yesterday. I was beyond excited and thrilled and I couldn't really believe it, I still feel the urge to reread my acceptance letter in case I missed some fine print actually telling me to take a hike. But alas, it is real, and I, Kate Armstrong, will be a Disney Cast Member as of August 16th, 2011!! That's just 153 days and 7 hours ;)

Obviously I'm super excited I got in, it's sad though because a few of my really great friends, aka Sam, did not. She is one of the biggest Disney fans I know, and a hard worker, so it's too bad, but I think that she has some other really incredible things on the horizon :)

I was hanging out with my dear friend Amy (we dyed our hair!! I'm a red head... sort of! Don't worry Disney, it'll be gone before I start) and she sent me downstairs to get cupcake holders. I decided to just check my email real quick incase I got a message from my boss or family, and opened up both hotmail and facebook at the same time. Facebook loaded first and I saw an insane list of people saying they got waitlisted or declined! My heart started racing as I clicked over to my email and saw Kristen's name! I clicked on the email and all I saw was the big CONGRATULATIONS across the middle!! I quickly scanned the line saying I was to start August 16th and starting screaming haha. I hollered up to Amy and made her come downstairs and was jumping around like a crazy person!! I called my parents right away (thank you Amy!) and told them the news and then read the rest of the email! haha. It was one of the most exciting moments of my life. Knowing everything that rested on this, I am soooo freaking pumped!!!

Then I went back on facebook and saw everyone getting either waitlisted or declined. It's odd because only about 6 people seemed to be accepted right off the bat. However then looking at the start dates it kind of made sense. They told us we were interviewing for dates between October and February, and the only dates given out as far as I've seen are August 16th (mine!), September 6th and September 20th! Therefore I think they waitlisted everyone they wanted besides the first few, and are going to figure out their dates in the next while and slowly but surely the majority will be hired. That's my theory at least!! It is nice though because a couple of my friends from my first contract (including my one time roommate!) got rehired so there will be some familiar faces around the place.

It's funny because if I had checked my email in order I would have recieved this message from Kristen first:

Greetings Kate,

In addition to our last email, if you accept your position for Walt Disney World they would need you to apply for a new passport as soon as possible as the US government is now asking for passports to be valid for the length of your program plus 6 months before they can issue any visa. As your program would start in August, are you able to see today what you would need to renew your passport to ensure it can be renewed before Walt Disney World starts the visa processing?

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask!

Have a Great Day!

Kristen Thornton

Yummy Jobs

I would have been sooo confused and excited and freaking out if I got that before my acceptance/offer letter! It was perfect that I was in Victoria because that is where the passport office is!! Sam, being the amazing friend she is, agreed to go with me, so we got my photos taken on the way, then had Orange Julius while we waited. Side note: Sam had never had Orange Julius before..this was insanely crazy to me. We waited about an hour while chatting and catching up and then went up to the lady and plead my case! My passport doesn't actually expire for a year and a half so apparently it's a weird time to try and get a new one, so I had to write a message why I needed it renewed now, and the lady was sooo nice about it! She was chatting and charismatic, I thought she was going to be scary! haha. The guy at the front table was :S They wouldn't mail them out for 10 days, so Sam is going to pick mine up for me and express overnight it to me so that I can still make my trip with Ashley April 2nd. If anything goes wrong with it though I shall not be going to America.... ahhh!!

Everything is going to be such a close call! My arrival date in Florida is August 16th. My sister's wedding date is August 13th (I'm a bridesmaid!) and if I do go to university for the summer my last day of school is August 6th! It's such crazy bizarrely perfect timing, especially because my end date for my program is August 10th, 2012...and university would start maybe 2 weeks after that tops? Such unreal timing. It'll all either work out perfectly, or not. hahaha.

Now I'm just on my way home to Vancouver! I hate BC Ferry prices, but I love the ride! I am soo unbelievably excited, I can't even fathom the year ahead! This is my dream coming true, I'm humbled and surprised but it just feels so incredible.

Thank you all for reading this blog, and I hope that I can provide some kind of help to those applying, entertainment for those just browsing, and just keep you up to date on my happenings. Thank you especially to my family, know that as I'm overly excited to be moving 3000 miles to the south east, I'm also sad that I'll be so far away from so many people that believe in my dreams just as much as I do.

And sorry for the lack of pictures in this one, I'll fill it up next time ;)