Faith, trust & pixie dust - A Disney CEP blog

Hey everyone!

Thanks to anyone that has ever taken an interest in my blog over the last few years.  It’s been 5 years this year since my last programme and I still think about it all the time!

I’m writing this during the Covid-19 period as I’ve had some time to sit and reflect on all of the travelling I’ve been able to do in the past and how much I’m going to miss it this year.  I read that all of the Disney College Program/Exchange Program participants had to finish their programmes early and be sent home due to the parks being closed - my heart really goes out to these guys as I know how much this programme means to people!  

I used to really enjoy blogging during my time out in Orlando and I’ve recently plucked up the courage to start a new blog and travel Instagram account whilst I have some free time in lockdown.  If you're interested in following then head over to my blog page celluloidscenes.com and Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/_celluloidscenes

I also wanted to share that I now live in one of the new apartment buildings right next to the US Embassy in London.  When I did my programmes, the embassy was just off Oxford Street but now it’s in Nine Elms.  If you’re ever down here for a visa appointment, drop me a message on Instagram and I’d be happy to maybe meet for a cuppa and answer any questions you might have (I love talking Disney!).  

The Disney Cultural Exchange Programme really has had an impact on my life.  People are always amazed when I tell them that I’ve worked out in Disney and are really interested to hear about my experience.  I’ve been in the same job for the last 4 years, but it is also a huge talking point for any job applications and really makes your CV stand out.  If you’re thinking of applying, then I totally recommend it.  All three programmes will stay with me forever and were such an amazing way to spend my university summers.  

If you’re here years after I’ve written this blog, thanks again for taking the time to read it!  There really weren’t many blogs out there when I was applying for my first programme that gave much information about it, so I thought I’d share my experiences in the hope that they’d help at least one other person out there.  Some of the information might be out of date now, but hopefully some of it is still useful.  

If you’re not used to Tumblr, then it’s really easy to scroll through my old posts by clicking the ‘Archive’ button at the top of my page.  I’d recommend scrolling all the way back to 2012 which is when I was the most active on my blog and posted the most content.

Thanks again everyone and good luck if you’re thinking of applying to any Disney programmes in the future!

So I have completely neglected my blog again this year because I have had so little time to do anything other than work, play and sleep! 

Disney CEP 2015 - Week 3

Week 2 on the Disney Cultural Exchange Program.

I’ve been so busy with work training etc and also the wifi connection in my apartment isn’t great at all which is why I’ve been neglecting my blog so much!

Just a quick post to say that I have been placed at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort in the Magic Kingdom area and work in the Ohana restaurant as a seater/greeter.  It’s an amazing restaurant which serves Polynesian cuisine at breakfast and dinner “family style” which means all the food is brought to the table and everything on the menu is served to the guests.  It is also “all you care to enjoy”, so guests can reorder as much as they like from the selection of dishes served.  It seats around 450 - 475 guests at a time so it’s one of the bigger restaurants that I’m aware of in Walt Disney World.

Breakfast is a character style breakfast so guests are able to meet Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto in their Hawaiian costumes! They serve sharing platters with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, fresh fruit, Mickey and Stitch waffles and also traditional “welcome bread” which is coconut and pineapple and cinnamon raison bread.  Every 40 minutes they have the “Aloha parade” where the guests can walk around the room with maracas and dance with the characters. 

Dinner time is slightly different as there are no characters but there is live entertainment in the form of a Polynesian performer who either sings and hands out lei’s to the guests.  The view from Ohana looks across the Seven Seas Lagoon across to Magic Kingdom and has a view of the castle.  There is a perfect view of Wishes from many of the tables in the restaurant so the music from Wishes is played as the fireworks go off.  At dinner they serve the pineapple and coconut welcome bread, mixed green salad, pork dumplings, chicken wings, teriyaki noodles, chicken, steak and “peel and eat” shrimp skewers and then bread pudding with a caramel and banana sauce and chocolate brownie.  

I’m now fully trained as a seater and greeter which are the two different positions that I would be working as.

As a greeter, I would check in guests for their breakfast or dinner reservations and as a seater I would welcome and seat guests once their table is ready.

As a seater I need to give a spiel to the guests and inform them about the meaning of “Ohana”, let them know about the welcome bread (in case of any allergies), and also let them know about the fire pit in the middle of the restaurant which is where the skewers are prepared.  

My shifts are only 6 hours long at a time so I would work from either 07:15 - 13:15 or 16:45 - 22:45 so it’s a total of 30 hours per week as I get two days off.  I’m mostly on evening shifts so I have my mornings free to do what I like which is great as I want to make the most of the sunshine and get a tan at the pool!

Here’s a picture of my lovely Ohana costume:

I actually have to wear the top untucked and it makes me look about 5 sizes bigger than I am!  Apologies for the grubby mirror, I took this in the costuming changing room. 

Week 1 of my Disney CEP 2015! :) 

I have been superrr busy this week getting all settled into my apartment and going through training (and also enjoying myself and having fun!), but I have been putting a video together of my first week on my Cultural Exchange Program!  I will be uploading it tomorrow hopefully if I get it finished tonight so until then I have also finally created a little montage of pictures and videos from my 2013 program working for Disney.  Hope you guys enjoy it :) 

Today I finally received my DORMS email where I get to select my preferences for accommodation! 

Unfortunately we are only allowed to select up to 2 other participants to share an apartment with which is very limited as on one of my other programs we were allowed to choose up to 5 others!

I had been talking to 5 other girls and we all agreed to share an apartment together but now we have had to split up into two groups of 3 which is completely rubbish!  Hopefully we all manage to be placed in the same complex though so that we don’t need to travel to go to each other’s apartments. 

We selected a 3 bedroom 6 person apartment in Patterson Court as our first choice so fingers crossed that we get what we would like!

The apartment fees range from $87 - $118 per week and for the apartment size we want it costs $101 which is pretty much in the middle so that’s not too bad.

Yesterday (15th April) I had my visa appoinment at the U.S Embassy in London! I had hoped that because I have had two previous J-1 visas before that I wouldn't have to attend an in-person interview but because my last visa was more than 12 months old and I also had a different SEVIS number to my last visa I unfortunately had to make the trip down south.  

I had also hoped that because my appointment was at 10am I would get to spend the remainder of my day wandering London and spending all my money on clothes...but nope! The Gods of visa granting decided I would spend 6 hours in the Embassy and so I only had an hour before I had to get the train to the airport.  Never mind, I am now officially visa approved and even saved some pennies by not spending any money on Oxford Street!  It was also a great excuse to wear my lovely new Winnie the Pooh skirt which I shall post afterwards. :)

I arrived outside the Embassy at 9:20am and had to stand in a very long queue before I got inside (I had to get to the little white marquee tent to be signed in before being allowed entry).  I didn’t actually get inside and issued my ticket until 10:33am so this already made me realise that it was going to be a long day.

It was so so busy inside that there were hardly any seats at all but I managed to grab one eventually.  When I first got inside I was issued a number (N461) and all you need to do it sit and waited for your number to be called.  If you have ever been to Argos it is essentially a giant version of that! There’s a big screen at the front of the room and when someone is ready to be seen at one of the windows, the number will appear on screen and tell you which window you should go to.  

I waited about 3 hours to be seen at the first window where I handed over my documents and my fingerprints were taken.  I was then told to take a seat again and my number would be called out for my interview.

I waited another 3 hours before my number was eventually called and I had to go to the final window for my “interview”.  I was only asked a few questions like what I was going to be doing whilst working and if I had been to America before and then told that my visa would be granted and I would receive my passport back in the post next week!  So 6 hours of waiting for approximately a 2 minute interview and a scan of my fingerprints.

Almost every other person doing the program this summer luckily were in and out of the Embassy within an hour so yesterday obviously just was not my day! I think it was because I had chosen a day was not specifically a J-1 visa applicant day wah, but it was the only day I could find cheap travel!

I’m going to add a little bit on my FAQ page about the visa location, documents to bring etc in the hope it will help people in future!

Well that’s me all visa approved so now it’s only 46 days until I jet off to Orlando! :)