I interrupt your regularly scheduled broadcast…

Normally this blog is all about Disney and while Disney is fabulous it really isn’t my #1 love. My #1 love is musicals! My parents took me to see Les Miserables for the first time when I was really young. I can’t remember exactly remember. It played in Chicago from ’87 to ’91. So I was between 2 and 6 when I first saw it and we saw it more than once. I also recently found a Playbill for 1994. It made a huge impact on me. After that I would dance around the living room and “play” every role in the cast. My favorite was Eponine. From Les Miserables I went to dancing to the Nutcracker (which we saw every Christmas) and moved on from there. Now I find few things in life more enjoyable than sitting in a dark theater, eyes closed, and listening to breathtaking music. It makes me cry, it makes me feel amazing, and nothing in the entire world makes me feel the same.

As to how I got to this post tonight I went to see the Les Miserable 25^th Anniversary Concert movie. One of my local theaters shows operas, musicals, and all sorts of other unusual things. The cast was good. The girl who played Young & Older Cosette, Eponine, Gavroche, and the Thénardiers were all really great. Young Cosette and Gavroche were easily the best I’ve ever seen. Both of the Cosettes had amazing voices. Nick Jonas played Marius. When he sang alone he was very good but when he sang with the others he was left in the dust. He doesn’t have a strong enough voice to actually pull it off. Jean Valijean had more of an opera voice but was incredibly talented. The concert part was good but the last 20-30 minutes of the movie were worth the price of admission. After the cast took their bows the original 1985 cast came out. They are who I picture when I think of the characters. We have a VHS of a concert they did and I’ve watched it frequently over the years. So the original cast comes out to HUGE applause. In celebration of the 25^th anniversary Les Miserables is playing in 2 theaters plus the concert. So the 2 other casts joined the rest on stage. The 4 Jean Valijeans sang Bring Him Home and then the entire original cast, the concert cast, plus the 2 casts that are currently playing in London sand “One day More” together. It was awesome. Then Cameron Mackintosh spoke about his time with Les Mis and how it has changed his life. The writers and composer was there. At the end Cameron Mackintosh spoke again about Les Mis the School Edition. He had students from around the world come out in costume and all 4 casts and the students sang, “Do you Hear the People Sing” together. Overall it was an amazing experience. It makes me very excited for January so I can see Les Miserables in person again!

Here is my complete list of shows I’ve seen:

Les Miserables – 4 Times

Phantom of the Opera – 3 Times

In the Heights – 2 Times

The Addams Family

The Lion King

Beauty and the Beast

The Nutcracker - 5 Times

Wicked - 2 Times

A Chorus Line

Jersey Boys

Rent

Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged

Mama Mia

Miss Saigon

A Christmas Carol

La Nouba (not really a musical but kinda)

West Side Story

Blue Man Group (again not really a musical but stage show)

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Apparently I really don't want to do homework...

My "Waiting" blog has been mostly written in my school notebook and I was all set to type it up and post when I realized I didn't bring my homework dogsitting. So I figured I'd pick it up yesterday when I ran home. I got it all together and put it next to my purse and last night I start looking for it again and can't find it anywhere. Apparently I really don't want to do my homework because I left it at home again! I don't really want to rewrite it so I'll just have to wait on that again.

Instead I'll just post some pictures and tell you about my Friday night. Friday I went to see The Lion King, the play not the movie. It was awesome. The theater has a private box on each side that was filled with drums and other weird instruments. Since we were up in the Balcony we had a great view of them. The costumes were amazing. It was so completely different and unique. I really loved that they used the entire theater. During the first scene there were singers in the boxes with the drums and animals paraded in down the aisles. During the first scene of the second act there were actors with birds in the balcony and all over. Not real birds of course but a super long stick with a bird on a string at the end. They waved the birds in a circle to look like they were flying. It was cool seeing the actors up close. Overall the show was awesome. The songs that were added to make it longer were ok but not really that great. Rafiki was easily the best character. When the cast came out for bows I was shocked how small a cast it was. There were so many people on stage most of the show that it seemed like there should have been more people.

Every year around this time the actors in broadway plays all around the country, take a moment after the show to talk about Broadway Cares. Broadway Cares started out as a fund-raising organization for AIDS. Since it started it has branched out and donates money to all different causes. In the lobby after the show they had signed posters for sale as well as pictures with 2 of the actors. Last year when I saw rent I got a cast signed playbill. The posters this year were way cooler.

At the theater I finally took my purple folder picture. For those who don't know most people, especially in the facebook group, take a picture with the purple folder that Disney sends when you get in. This is both fun and helpful when requesting new CP friends. For those of you who haven't seen it yet here is a link for our facebook group.

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=272325548167

And here is my purple folder picture.



Here are a couple other random Disney picture for your enjoyment.


This one is from the gardens in China.

Is this still a good time to talk?

Sorry for the delay on posting but it’s been a busy week. I was out of town all weekend visiting my little brother at college.

So you’ve made it past the web interview. It wasn’t too tough right? If you haven’t already called to schedule your phone interview make sure to give yourself a generous amount of time. Your not going to want to feel pressured right before your interview. They suggest using a home phone because it will have better service but if your house is anything like mine, you have multiple extensions and run the risk of having someone else pick up the phone while your on it. I used my cell phone and just sat in the backyard.

Preparing For the Phone Interview

There is a lot that you can do to make your phone interview go smoothly. The links I posted earlier all have sections involving questions that are asked during the interview. When I was preparing I found all the questions I could and wrote out answers for each question.

• Here is a link to an extremely helpful post on micechat.com. Look for post #1009. http://micechat.com/forums/walt-disney-world-resort/10779-college-program-68.html

• Here is another link with some more interview questions http://www.facebook.com/#!/topic.php?uid=272325548167&topic=16498

A few minutes before your call I’d head to a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted and try to relax a bit. I was sooooo nervous before the phone call. My stomach was a mess but once I got on the phone and got going I completely relaxed. Make sure to have any notes you took handy along with your role checklist and a pen. There will be time to ask questions if you have any so have those prepared and ready to go.

The Actual Phone Interview

The phone calls are usually on time. There have been a few people who have had late phone calls. The call might come up as an unknown number so be prepared for that. The biggest tip I can give is to answer your phone with a smile in place. They want an outgoing happy person. When they call they will confirm that this is a good time to talk. The interview is generally around 20 minutes, sometimes it’s a bit more. Mine was 25 minutes. During the interview they will have you select your top 3 roles and confirm some information. The questions they ask during the interview will usually center around those roles with a few other questions about some of the other roles that you selected. They will ask if you are interested in doing Quick Service Food and Beverage if you didn’t pick it. It’s not a big deal to say no. I just said that there are so many other areas I’m interested in I’d prefer to be in one of those. They will take notes during the question section. Feel free to make conversation with the person who interviews you. I spent maybe 5 minutes or so during the course of my interview just talking with her. I made an effort to give the woman a snapshot of who I am and found a way to show we had something in common. I wanted the woman to get off the phone and remember me later. Overall just relax and have fun with it, try to make it a conversation versus an interview, and most of all smile and be friendly!

Step by Step Application

So you’ve decided to apply. Congrats! It’s a scary and exciting step your about to take but don’t worry there is so much information out there you’ll be fine if you just take the time to prepare. Here is the step by step process for applying.

Step 1. Watch web presentation or go to school presentation.
Step 2. Take Web Interview
Step 3. Do role checklist
Step 4. Phone Interview
Step 5. The dreaded wait.

Step 1. I did the web presentation because I wanted to apply right away. I watched the web presentation and did the web interview on August 18th – the very first day possible. I found Tara, the girl who shows you around, extremely irritating. I watched it 2 months ago so I don’t remember everything but I also don’t think it was very helpful. I still had tons of questions that I didn’t get answered. I turned to blogs, vlogs, and discussion boards for real answers.

• I also went to my school’s presentation on Sept. 29th. I was already in at that point but it was really really helpful! Even if you’ve applied or are already in the program I’d suggest going to your school’s presentation. There were former CPers there to talk to about their experiences. My school offers credit so that was talked about as well. Also the videos they show are way better and Tara wasn’t in them!

Step 2. The web interview is really easy. Some people do fail but just take your time, answer honestly and you’ll be fine. The format is the same all the way through just kinda long. For example the question might be “You are frequently late” and you can choose “strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree”. There might be a neutral in that but I can’t remember. Earlier I said answer honestly and I do believe that you should but I fibbed a bit. In my personal life I am frequently late but when it comes to work I’m on time and work hard. Some people say that Disney prefers the “strongly” answers but who really knows on that. I tried to put mostly “strongly” responses but I also didn’t want to exaggerate it. They will repeat questions later in different ways so make sure you read each questions carefully!

Step 3. The role checklist, one of the hardest parts to me, so many choices! Read the role descriptions carefully and make sure to check off only roles you want to do. You can check off as many or as few as you want. The mores roles you check the greater your chance of getting in. Checking off quick Service Food and Beverage will greatly increase your chances of getting in. Just don’t forget if you check it they can give it to you so don't check a role unless you really want it.

• I was confused on when we rank what our top 3 roles are. You do that during the phone interview. I thought we did that here for the longest time so when I was checking off roles I was a bit worried.

Step 4 and 5 will have their own blog because this is getting a bit long! Feel free to leave me a comment if you have any questions!

To CP or not to CP…

Is that your question? I know many people debate over participating in the program. I can really only tell you why I decided to do it. I love Disney. I really enjoy spending time at the parks and have always found the history as well as the behind the scenes aspects of the company interesting. I don’t think that there is any feeling in the world like walking under the train and coming out on Main Street and seeing the castle for the first time. I’ve made amazing memories and found out some very bad news in the Parks. Disney has been a part of my life for a long time and I want to make those kinds of memories for others. I used to play a game in the park with my friends. We would walk around and say “if I worked at the park I’d want to…” The end was usually whatever we had just done. Though my answers were mostly “work at the Haunted Mansion” or “plan weddings”. As to how I went from loving Disney to planning my move is very simple. I was walking around campus one day and saw a flyer for the CP. It made me think. I love Disney World. I love Fl. It would be hella fun. I have tons of friends in FL. I could make a bunch more friends. Oh and it would look great on my resumé. After that I spent hours on different sites reading all about the program and people who have done it. I asked someone I knew who had done it and they loved it. When I was in WDW in June I actually talked to someone who was doing a Summer Alumni program. She loved it too. Some people believe they got their current jobs because of their CP. Having a company like Disney on your resumé makes people take notice. The level of service and quality of training that Disney gives stays with their employees. Furthermore I want to do the wedding planning Professional Internship and I have to do the CP first.

Some people are worried about being homesick. I’m something of an expert on that. I moved to South FL right out of high school for college. I knew not a single person. It was an amazing experience. You get to reinvent yourself. You can become anyone you want. Of course I missed my family but I found ways to deal with it. I usually locked myself in my bedroom for an afternoon and watched Christmas movies. I know it sounds weird but Christmas has always been a constant when it comes to my family. If your afraid of being away from family just remember they are always a phone call away and eventually you’ll find something that brings home to you. Besides you’ll be surrounded by friends who will make you smile when you feel down. If that doesn’t work how about a spin on your favorite ride or a hug from a mouse? It’s a chance to spread your wings in a safe place. Believe me nothing is more freeing than taking that leap of faith.

If your looking for some more information to help make your decision. Here are a couple of links.

Micechat has a massively long forum all about the College Program. It's a long read but once your finally done your head will be full of great info.
http://micechat.com/forums/walt-disney-world-resort/10779-college-program.html

Disboards is another site like Micechat. Tons of info and worth the time to read.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2034882

And for a something a bit more fun a legend in the Disney College Program Vlog World
http://www.youtube.com/user/JohnWDWCP#p/u/50/M1okcjfTiE8

Photo Fun

I was going to post about how I decided to do the CP but I decided to just post a couple of my favorite Disney Photos and one outside of Disney photo. I thought I'd try to post some out of Disney photos to give you readers an view of my everyday life. Every picture I put here I took unless I otherwise specify.

This first one is from St. Patrick's day in St. Paul. I lived in St. Paul for a year and I absolutely loved it!


This one is a favorite from the Parks. I absolutely love this attraction and had to wait around for a bit before the sign lit up.


I LOVE LOVE LOVE SpectroMagic. While I am excited to have Main Street Eletrical Parade while I'm in the CP I'll always like Spectro more.

Move In date

Well I’ve done an awful job of posting like I said I was. In all fairness I have tons of schoolwork.

I picked my move in date. This was a tough decision for 1 reason only. I know it’s going to sound crazy but Les Miserables is playing in Ft. Lauderdale. It starts on the 18th and goes until the 30th. I have seen Les Mis before, like 5 times, but that doesn’t matter. It is one of those plays that no matter how many times I see it if I have the chance I’m all over it. Also it’s only been playing in London for years and isn’t playing all over the US so this is a rare opportunity.

Anyways you guys get the point I’m dying to see Les Mis but my dates conflict. I ended up picking January 19th - Aug. 5th for 2 reasons.

1. I want to live in Chatham 3 bedroom and I think the sooner I move in the better.
2. I found a kick ass roommate!

#2 is the main reason. We did these roommate questionnaire and her response to the “Are you tidy/messy” question was “I am messy but not dirty, if that makes sense but I will respect your space and do my best to keep picked up.” DING DING DING!! We have a winner! I’m not tidy. I’m messy but not dirty and everyone else was saying they were “tidy” and I knew that wasn’t going to work too well. So I snagged the honest person and we’ll be messy together.

I totally like picking my roommate in advance. It gives me a chance to get to know her and we’ve found out we actually have a lot in common. I think it’s a great idea to at least get your roommate picked out in advance. This gives you a chance to get to know at least 1 person before move in date.

Welcome!!

Yes my official welcome post is going to be my second post but the truth is I wouldn’t have done a blog if I hadn’t gotten into the College Program. Time for a little background about myself. I’m a 25 year old native Chicagoan. After graduating high school I went to school at Florida Atlantic University for 3 years. I was a marine biology major there and after 3 years decided that life in a lab wasn’t for me. So I discontinued school and moved to Washington State to work on a ranch for a year. After that I moved back to Chicago for a couple of months before moving to Minnesota for a year. Once my year in MN was done I moved back to Chicago and started school again in Spring 2010. I’m currently attending College of DuPage and am planning to transfer once my semester at WDW is done.

I’m a big photography nut so I’m sure I’ll post some pictures up here. I love to read, listen to music, go to museums, and do anything outdoors. I am a full-fledged Disney nut. When my phone rings Disney music plays and my room is filled with Disney stuff. My personal motto is “Let’s live today”. That might not make much sense to most people but an old friend woke me up one morning and told me “Kat, let’s live today.” So we went all Ferris Bueller and just had an amazing day of doing all the things we always said we would. I still try to “live” as much as possible and I think Walt Disney World will be a most excellent place to do that.

I wanted to give you guys my own personal Disney Shorten Vocabulary List. Learn it well my readers for there will be random quizzes through the blog. Mostly because I am too lazy to actually write out all the worlds all the time.

Disney Shorten Vocabulary List

Walt Disney World – WDW
College Program – CP
Merchandise – Merch
Haunted Mansion – HM
Splash Mountain – SM
Space Mountain – SpaM
Rockin Roller Coaster – RnR
Toy Story Midway mania – TSMM
Main Street Electrical Parage – MSEP
Magic Kingdom – MK
Animal Kingdom – AK
Disney’s Hollywood Studios – MGM… just kidding DHS

That’s all I can think of for now but if I use anymore I’ll add to the list.

Well I’m off to a family party but now that I’m in the groove I’ll try to add something everyday even if it’s just a quote, picture, or fun link.

I'm In?

Well I’m in. I guess. LOL. It’s kind of a crazy story but I have officially been accepted for Spring Advantage 2011 as a Merchandise College Program Participant!! I wanted Attractions but I’m actually really excited about Merch for one specific reason… I can work ANYWHERE!! Well almost anywhere, I can work in any retail location that doesn’t need special training. I am totally going to pick up shifts in different locations.

Now for the story, on Sept. 20th I decided that after 4 weeks I should email them and find out why I hadn’t heard from them yet. In the Thank You for Interviewing email they ask you to do this. Right after I sent that email my inbox reloaded and I had an email from them already. Figuring it was a standard thanks for email I opened it up. To my shock it was an email from DCP informing me that I was running out of time to accept my invitation for the Spring Advantage Merch Role. Ummmm huh? At that point I had not gotten an email or letter from them inviting me to even join. At that point I wasn’t sure what was going on but Tech Services emailed me later. DCP had sent an email 2 WEEKS ago! It apparently bounced back so I never got it! Yikes! I almost missed out entirely because of that bounced email! But I didn’t so that’s good. I’ve officially accepted and paid the fee at this point. Now to pick an arrival date…