Check-in/Move in Day

Move in day was yesterday. After attempting (and mostly failing) to sleep Sunday night, I got up bright and early to head over to the Vista Way apartments to begin Check In for my Disney College Program. I got there a little later than expected because I had a debacle at the hotel. Since I don't have a car with me in Florida, I was just walking over to check-in from my hotel. I got to the sidewalk and realized my purse with all my important documents was sitting on the table...in my room. So I headed back up.

Doesn't sound dramatic, does it? Well, here's where the drama starts. I got to my room, only to find that my key card no longer opened my door. In fact, not one of the 3 key cards I had would open the door. So I booked it back down to the front desk and asked if security could let me in. "Sure," they said. "Someone will be right up to your room," they said. 15 minutes later, nobody has shown up. So back down I went.

I thought maybe I had simply misunderstood and security was waiting by the desk. Nope. This time the front desk guy went with me. Who should we meet at the elevator but the security guy. So now we have a veritable entourage headed up to room 390. We get there and the security guy swipes his card. Nothing happens. Front Desk tries his. Nothing. Eventually they break down and use the hard key. Apparently those swipe things run on batteries and mine had died.

So now I'm running late, but I finally got over to check in. Things went significantly smoother once we got there. There was a lot of signing things, but the lines moved very quickly. I took a surprisingly good ID picture and headed over to my new apartment.

My randomly assigned roommates are great! We are a really diverse group. There are girls from the Midwest, from Boston, Colorado, Florida and even Puerto Rico! The way Disney's housing works is that every room is double occupancy, so our 3 bedroom apartment has 6 girls living in it. That might sound like its really a lot of people in one apartment, but they are good sized apartments and it doesn't feel crowded at all.


Here's a tour of a Chatham Square apartment! Not mine, but they all have basically the same layout.


Today we sat through an exceptionally long meeting about housing procedures that can essentially be summed up as follows:
1) Have your cast ID on you at all times
2) The doors lock automatically upon closing
3) No guests after 1am
4) Don't do anything stupid

Those kind of meetings are always boring, although I understand the importance and necessity of them. I just can't believe that people really do some of the things they talk about, like taking the door of your refrigerator off to put a keg in it or cutting a hole in the wall to your bedroom. Really, people? Why would you cut a hole in the wall of your apartment? That's just idiocy at its best. Also, I particularly liked the stories of how people try to smuggle visitors into the complexes in the trunks of their cars. That's just stupid. Obey the COMPLETELY UNDERSTANDABLE rules and your life at Disney should be fine.

Tomorrow is Traditions, which is basically our orientation to the Disney company. We get to learn all the cool trade secrets about the company and then we get our nametags (EEK!) and our park passes.

Needless to say, when Traditions gets done in the afternoon there is a mad rush for the parks since we haven't been able to get in free yet. Yes, I will be in that mob of new cast members. I'm really excited! The rest of the week is more specialized training for individual roles. I'll be heading to Downtown Disney where the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique I am assigned to is located to learn the ins and outs of being a Fairy Godmother in Training!

Packing Extravaganza!

In case you don't know it, my name is Allison Bette Campbell and I'm going to be a part of the Walt Disney World College Program from June 2010 through January 2011. I have an awesome job working in the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique as a Fairy Godmother in Training!

This is where I get to work every day!

My non-Disney friends and family might be wondering, "What exactly does a FGIT do?" Easy, the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique is a place where little girls can come and be transformed into a princess! The FGITs style these little princesses hair, do their makeup and makeup and sprinkle them with pixie dust before they go. Girls can also buy a princess dress at the Boutique and have their picture taken. For more information, check it out at http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/tours-and-experiences/bibbidi-bobbidi-boutique/

I have less than a week until I leave for the biggest adventure of my young life so far.

When did I start packing, you ask?

Oh, just this week. That may not seem like it's super late, but I am chronically early and over-prepared so waiting this long was WAY out of character for me. No worries though, things still got done in plenty of time. I did take over the entirety of our dining room with my sprawling luggage. God help us if there's a fire in the house in the next three days, we'll never get out alive!

For those of you who are CPs awaiting your time to come to the Happiest Place on Earth, there is a super helpful packing list on the Disney recruiting website. I always recommend packing from a list; it helps you prioritize items and gives you a starting point.

I know nobody enjoys packing, so why not make it less painful?

Since all the tedious packing is done, the rest of this week is going to be really low-key. There are a lot of friends and family to visit and say goodbye to and lots of thumb-twiddling. I'm sure I'll be getting antsy soon enough! (Well, antsier than I have been all week already!) If you want more regular, real-time updates follow me on Twitter or check out my Facebook.

Until next time, have a magical day!