WDW college program experiences

packwingfn · Post by **packwingfn** » Jan Mon 14, 2008 7:40 pm

Since I didn't get home until 6:30 on New Years, I slept until 1 and became lazy until I had to work. I did start packing on this day as I wanted to spend my last day off at the park and not packing. It was just getting sad now at this point, the fact that I was packing, thats when I knew it was almost over.

I'll be honest, I didn't want to come home. I loved the indepedence I had down there, and I absolutely LOVED going to the parks whenever I could. Of course, there was some days when I went to the park and kind of felt bored, but most of the time, it was pretty good. I also made a few close friends down there and the fact I will probably never see these people again is also kind of sad. Even If I go to Disney to work seasonal, at least, I get to work in the World Showcase but the whole CP experience can never be experienced again unfortunally.

On New Years Day, I worked the France Courtyard...which they had been giving me a lot since November & I was kind of sick of it because it is such a small area so there is little guest interaction especially when people are just eating in that area so all they want to know is where is the closest restroom. Also, to be quite honest, I felt hungover (but obviously I wasnt because I didnt drink) but I had a headache from the weird sleeping schedule so I tried for an ER but I was like 6th on the list and they only gave it to 5 people that night. So I just did the littlest amount of my job as possibile without making the area look bad. I just had no energy on that day from the lack of sleep. Luckily I had the International Gateway Shop as my night detail which isn't too bad and kept me awake for the night.

yodiwan1 · Post by **yodiwan1** » Jan Mon 14, 2008 11:04 pm

don't think you wont see them again. i have seen friends from 2001 at least 5 times already and a few are even coming to my wedding. We even had a 10 person reunion back in 2005. If the friendships really mean that much to you they will survive. I'm glad you had a better experience than me working there.

packwingfn · Post by **packwingfn** » Jan Thu 24, 2008 10:00 am

I'm back in school, a year later from where I first planned about attending the Disney College Program. It feels so long ago but I feel a lot better about myself as an indivudual then I have ever felt before. I feel a bit more positive about my future now. In one year from now, I will be graduating from college...Wow.

Onto my last day of work on January 2nd. It was a very sad day, as all the CPs were working besides the 2 that were extending and one of the internationals. They made a poster for us with our names on it saying farwell and it was on the wall in the preshift. It made us all sad when we all saw it. It stunk as all the cool full timers that got along with us weren't working that day so it was all the people who couldnt care for us or so it seemed. As a lot of the people that we hardly talked too but defnitetly worked with in our night details even were getting sad. Another thing that stunk was this manager who just came in for the holidays was doing our preshift meeting, she didnt even know our names or faces. Oh well...And my last thing I would covering during the CP was RESTROOMS!!

I havent had restrooms in so long, and I hardly ever got restrooms and to get restrooms on my last day...Go figure. What made it worse was that it was Odyssey/Mexico, so I really wasn't in the middle of World Showcase or anything. The best thing about the day too was they stopepd playing the christmas background music. I thought I wouldnt be able to hear the BGM anymore since they usually take a few days after new years to switch the tracks over, but here in Odyssey, they play a small track of each country so I got to hear ALL the countries in that one spot. You don't understand how much that made my day!

It was very cold on this day as it was a high of 35 degrees with the wind chill below 30...very cold for Florida but the cold did not stop me, as I stayed on stage for most of my shift even when I finished checking my restrooms which I didn't do much that day as I wanted to be on stage, sweeping the promeade and interacting with guests. I had to run over to Canada too to say my goodbyes to Off Kilter, and I pretty much just walked around Odyssey and Mexico and everywhere near it.

Around 6:00, I got a call for my evaluation. I can't say exactly how I did as I'm supposed to keep it quiet but I did real good and I really liked the one on one with the manager as you get to ask any questions that you bascially have, and talk about your future (with or without the company).

After a long extended last lunch break with the other custodians (and alot of pictures), I decided to walk through future world and sweep around there and soak in the atmosphere. They were even playing the Future World bgm so I bascially stayed on the West side and near SSE but it was cold so I walked pretty fast. The park was starting to slow down or most people stayed indoors so the park was pretty clean because of the wind making it feel so cold.

Illuminations was coming close and I was starting to get emotional. I tried to get a few fellow CPs to join me for Illuminations in the Plaza area (the BEST area to watch Illuminations). I've never got to watch Illuminations down there because it is always too busy, well everyone was inside the 2 tower shops keeping warm that it was empty until the last minute so I staked out a spot, while I grabbed Jim (another CP that I didnt call) to join me. We had the best spot, dead on center and another reason why this spot is so good is that they have speakers surrounding you so you have a true surround sound experience. During Illuminations, I usually do my fun & dance routine but I just soaked everything in today and I didn't start getting teary eyed until "We Go On" came on. Then following that was the Mickey wave goodbye to everyone and I cried the whole time. The guests there must have been wondering if I was OK or not as it was so hard saying goodbye to the guests knowing it was my goodbye too.

Before a easy night detail where I did absolutely nothing but sit inside the Odyssey Restaurant....We were all saying our goodbyes to the CPs who got ERs (7 of them got it, 5 including myself didnt), Even though they punched out at 10:30, we all stayed until 11:15 until they all left, it was very hard saying goodbye. After the detail, we all punched out at 1 and we stayed until 1:30 saying goodbye...talking with our manager Barbara & our coordinator Celia..and talking to each other as well.

One last thing that we all felt sad over was turning in our pan & broom. We all agreed that it felt weird not having to carry or worry about our pan & broom lol.

Here is some pictures from the last day:

http://photos-705.ll.facebook.com/photo ... 4_9563.jpg
The last day of work, on the bus

http://photos-705.ll.facebook.com/photo ... 5_9819.jpg
Me with my manager Barbara

http://photos-705.ll.facebook.com/photo ... 78_596.jpg
Me with my trainer Angelo

http://photos-705.ll.facebook.com/photo ... 79_859.jpg
Me with 2 other CPs and a full timer Mark.

http://photos-705.ll.facebook.com/photo ... 0_1129.jpg
In our Custodial office, a CP painted that

packwingfn · Post by **packwingfn** » Jan Thu 24, 2008 5:38 pm

I finally uploaded this picture.

It is a picture of me with Lion Sleeps Tonight (Her name is Andrea!). We hung out together on my last day at the Magic Kingdom, it was a lot of fun!

http://photos-705.ll.facebook.com/photo ... 4_1134.jpg

Lion Sleeps Tonight · Post by **Lion Sleeps Tonight** » Jan Thu 24, 2008 8:50 pm

Wow, your last night at work sounds so sad!! But it seems like it was time well worth spent there. I'm sorry that on your last day, you didn't get to say goodbye to everyone you wanted to. Seems you savored your final moments as a CP, nice.

I hope you keep in touch with as many people as you can, because coming back to look for people you haven't been in contact with for a while is very difficult.

I'm a bit envious that at the Showcase, the CP/CMs there have a sense of camaraderie and teamwork, something I really didn't have during my program, save with a select few people. Life is so much better when everyone works together!

Yeah, that was a really fun and....freezing day!! I will always remember that as the coldest time ever at Disney, and most I've ever seen people get so emotional during the fireworks.

Post by **js3901** » Jan Sat 26, 2008 12:37 am

that mural is pretty cool, but I think the artist should have left the wand off SSE.

sounds like a great time there in WDW for you. I was temped to do an internship there for my final 4 months of culinary school, but I was kind of looking for something a bit smaller.

coasterphil · Post by **coasterphil** » Jan Sat 26, 2008 9:23 pm

I got to see Samantha Brown at work today. Luckily I was escorting a family back to the Power Rangers otherwise I would have missed seeing her.

wdwannabe · Post by **wdwannabe** » Jan Sat 26, 2008 11:22 pm

You know, that is one person I think I would love to travel with.

packwingfn · Post by **packwingfn** » Jan Mon 28, 2008 9:50 am

http://photos-705.ll.facebook.com/photo ... 8_5910.jpg

There is our farewell poster.

The last full day (January 3rd), I wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom and spend the whole day there so I invited Andrea to the park with me because this might be the last time I see her and she really was the a big part of me doing the college program and I ended up having the best time of my life!

So I woke up in the morning then realized that I forgot my only pair of pants in my coworkers car (Robert) so I waited until he was awake so I could pick up them because it was SO COLD (like 30 degrees with a very strong wind). So he eventually woke up around 11 and I told Andrea to pick me up around Noon. In the meantime, we heard about some tradition about people throwing their work shoes in the Vista Pond so we decided to do it in the chatham pond but we werent able to reach the pond even from the third floor.

Andrea picked up and we got to the Magic Kingdom around 12:30 (not what I wanted to do) but it's ok as I had that one day where I spent all day in the park a few weeks ago so it was OK. We entered through the Ultidors and wandered around, walking underneith Tomorrowland. We wanted to enter near Space Mountain but the entrance we took at first, led to nowhere even though it said it was a staircase leading to Space Mountain and other Tomorrowland things so we walked back a few staircases and entered near the Mad Tea Party. Luckily the staircase led right on stage as there are some that dont and it can be very confusing.

We grabbed a FP for Space Mountain but never ended up using it (Oh Well). It was a pretty busy day in the park so we took it easy, going to see the rides/shows that I didnt see on my day in the park. We saw the Enchanted Tiki Room and we stayed until the end so Andrea could hear the "Boy Im tired, I think I'll head over to the hall of presidents and take a nap." We saw the Country Bears, Haunted Mansion, and I even met up with a friend from home and we all rode Splash Mountain (mind you it was 30 degrees) but it was one of the few rides with NO line hehe.

When I look back on it now, We didnt do a lot of the rides but thats fine, I was just enjoying the atmosphere of the park and I made sure I ate me some corn dog nuggets (which are delicious) and saw Sunny Eclipse while eating there. Then we saw the Cinderella Castle Lighting ceremony which was the first time I had seen the ceremony (pretty good), then sat down for a spot on Main Street an hour before SpectroMagic began and reserved seats for my friends Jessica & Steve. It was a very cold hour but I had to see Spectromagic. The only memory from Spectro was the other side booing the Big Bad Wolf then he comes to our side and we start cheering him and he gives us high fives and stuff.

Then we grabbed a seat & hot chocolate to get ready for Wishes and it was delayed 30 minutes. On my last night, and Wishes gets delayed!! As Andrea said earlier, everyone...ok mainly myself was crying during Wishes. It was the fact that it was my last night of the College Program and all the wonderful memories that I have that it was just so hard to say goodbye especially during Wishes, the music just gets to you!

Sleeping Beauty 5 · Post by **Sleeping Beauty 5** » Jan Mon 28, 2008 1:16 pm

Hey... I'm a friend of pac and I was wondering if there are any other opportunities to work at disney...I've graduated already and want to work/intern there. Any insider tips? Thanks

sprincess1 · Post by **sprincess1** » Feb Thu 28, 2008 4:59 pm

Honey when I started at Disney in '97 traditions was three 8 hour days !!! 5 hours in nothin!!! But back then they gave you more info and they more into the disney cast members as family.

packwingfn · Post by **packwingfn** » Mar Mon 03, 2008 10:59 am

Were you full-time? I heard that the full-timers traditions is still 8 hours while CPs/Part-Time traditions is only 5 hours.

coasterphil · Post by **coasterphil** » Mar Tue 04, 2008 12:38 pm

PT's traditions is 8 hours. I'm pretty sure only CPs get the abbreviated version.

packwingfn · Post by **packwingfn** » Mar Tue 04, 2008 3:04 pm

Thank you for the clarification. I wasnt sure about the part-timers.

BTW, Soon I will have all my videos I took in the CP uploaded on youtube so I will post the link here shortly.

Lion Sleeps Tonight · Post by **Lion Sleeps Tonight** » Mar Tue 04, 2008 5:32 pm

I'm pretty sure the full-time one is 8 hours as well. But they keep you occupied with cheesy videos and games.