Dalmatian Plantation

“ugh bag check. this guy is gonna see all the receipts and wrappers i forgot to take out of here.” “are those socks??”  “that was awkward” “dude I know how to use my maingate im here like 12 times a week” “do I need a picture of the dedication plaque?”  “it’s the same picture every time.”  “i guess i can just put it on my snapchat” “TONY’S”  “I wonder when the Dapper Dans are on next.”  “F it let’s just go to the 3.35 cause I can never find them any other time.” “Do I want a photo alone?”  “I’m not wearing makeup I’ll get one when I’m pretty” “Those hot dogs smell good.” “I hate hot dogs” “Damn I want a hot dog” “I’ll feel sick though” “Ah screw it”  “Mmmmm that ice cream cookie smells good too” “That hot dog was a bad idea”

There have been plenty of people who have gone home after the first 6 months and not extended. Because I'm still doing the first half of my program I can't tell you with absolute certainty whether or not it's worth it. If you do the full 12 months you get to experience all of the special events that Disney runs from Spring break events, Star Wars weekends to major holidays like Halloween, 4th of July, etc. You also get the opportunity to switch roles/locations when you extend so you can experience a wide range of things in terms of the work element as well. It really comes down to personal circumstance when you're looking at whether to extend or not.

A tragic love story

I’ve had a few messages recently with similar sentiments to this and I guess it’s time to be honest with everyone. So here goes. I was super excited about vlogging when I first got here. I’ve actually still got footage I filmed of the first week with my mum and my check in day on my computer somewhere. But before I got the chance to edit any of that footage and upload it I found out where I was working and I was absolutely devastated. Not just mildly upset, like I considered getting on a plane and going home a few times that’s how upset I was. From the beginning I’ve always wanted to do attractions and when I got accepted into merchandise I was disappointed but I figured I’d be okay as long as I got a location that was busy i.e. not a resort. So when I found out that I’d been placed in Yacht and Beach Club resorts I was so upset I wanted to get on a plane with my mum and just head home. But I didn’t. I decided that as long as I could put one foot in front of the other I would get past it eventually. But I really didn’t want to vlog or blog about it because I knew that at that particular point in time there was no way that I could look down the barrel of the camera and tell everyone that I was having fun when I wasn’t. The first week of the program was absolute hell for me. I caught the flu from my mum and the scheduling Gods decided it would be an awesome idea to have me (including housing meetings, paperwork sessions, Traditions, DU training and orientations) work a week and a half straight while I was emotionally and physically destroyed. When I finally got to my location I was the very first of a line of CPs who were to join the Y&B team which means that while I would eventually meet some of the best friends I’ve ever had, at the time I was all alone in a location dominated by older full time and part time CMs. tldr; At the beginning of my program I wasn’t getting along with my roommates, I had no friends at my location, I was disgustingly unwell and very very very far from where I expected I would be. Then I had the worst run of bad luck I’ve ever had in my life (but that’s a story for another day) and somewhere in there I lost access to my blog, youtube account and editing software. So here we are a couple months down the track and I’ve slowly got everything back together and I’m finally really enjoying the program and the friends that I’ve made. But I feel like I’ve found a nice balance in my life between my work, personal life and personal projects (cause I’m still attempting to build my writing portfolio while I’m down here). I could pick up vlogging again but I don’t want to disturb the balance that I’ve found. I don’t intend to take down any of the vlogs that I’ve posted previously because I do believe that the ones on the visas and such might be helpful to future applicants but at the moment I don’t have any plans to go back to vlogging my program. Sorry if that’s more information than you needed or asked for but I’ve had a few people message me about not vlogging/blogging anymore. This is the best explanation I can give. Also, yes I am extending until January 4th 2016. I’m staying in merchandise but I’m moving to a new location on June 7th. 

I can’t really speak too much about the DROMS process because if you choose roommates to live with one of you fills in the DORMS form with all of the group’s preferences and then the rest of the group just accepts. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the one who filled in the preferences so I never saw that section of the form. In terms of finding roommates I found all of mine online which seems to be the best way to do it if you don’t know people irl who are doing the program. Some of my roommates I’ve become super close with and some of them were a lot different online than they are in real life but it seems to have worked out pretty well. You can also go random which has worked for some people I know but for others it’s been disastrous. I’m in Chatham at the moment and I love it. We get all the buses and our apartments are pretty nice. Patterson’s apartments are nicer (and so is their pool) but they’re also more expensive and they don’t have their own bus stop so you have to walk to Chatham whenever you need a bus. Commons apartments are also pretty nice and they have their own washers and dryers so you don’t have to walk to the laundry rooms or pay money to wash your clothes. Cons of Commons is they have a bus stop but not all of the buses go there so for certain bus lines you need to walk to Chatham. Also because they have the washers and dryers they are more expensive. Another problem with Commons is that the complex itself is very very long so if you’re in building 28 for example it can be like a 5/10 minute walk to the bus stop/complex entrance. Vista is generally (depending on how many people you have in your apartment) the cheapest and it’s like a 3 minute walk to a whole bunch of food places and convenience stores. Bad news about Vista is some of the apartments are really old and gross. Vista is in the middle of a major refurb though so I’ve heard that if you have a refurbished apartment it could be even nicer than some of the newer ones. I’d never lived away from home before this program and it’s such a great way to learn to be independent. Disney housing can sometimes be a little bit annoying with their rules and curfews but it’s a brilliant safety net for people who have never lived out of home before. Your rent and utilities are covered in rent so you don’t have to worry about that. It’s mostly about learning how to manage your time and your money so you can live comfortably and still do the things you want to do. Honestly, it’s had it’s ups and downs but this program is one of the best things I’ve ever done and it’s helped me learn so much about myself and what I want to do with my life. I cannot recommend it enough. 

Hi! The program is initially for 5/6 months and then about three months in you have the opportunity to extend so that you’ll be doing the program for a full 12 months.