One Month of Making Magic

Published on by Jennifer K BrownLeave a comment

Hello All,

Welcome back to the Disney Times long time no see. I have been here for over a month now and the time has truely flown by. I have been working 6 days a week so I have lost all concept of time. Working at Disney is amazing but it is very busy and it’s crazy in the summer down here. Now lets get into all the exciting updates.

First thing is one of my leaders asked me to be a trainer for my location along with the two other girls that I went through training with! I am so excited to be able to train people and I am flattered that she sees so much potential in all three of us. I have also been asked to step in at Chef Mickeys a few times when they have had call outs. I love that I have the chance to go over there and learn how to do things at a table service resturaunt as well. The cordinator over there said she really enjoys having me so hopefully I will get to keep doing that while I am here.

I have officially been to every park! It took a month but it stopped raining long enough for my roommate and I to make it to the second water park. I think I have said this before but it is so nice to not feel like I have to rush to get everything done I want in one day.

The only other notable thing that I can remember right now is I saw Johnny Depp at Magic Kingdom. I didn’t go up to him or say anything becuase in the moment I wasn’t sure it was him and I didn’t want to be that creepy person. It took me about 10 minutes to realize that it was actually him, believe me I am also kicking myself for not taking a picture or saying anything.

Some exciting things that are coming up soon are the 4th of July. I am working that night so I won’t get to see the MK fireworks but fun fact some of the perimeter fireworks are set off from the employee parking lot at the Contemporary. (I am editing this after the 4th and it was a crazy holiday at work) I am starting my Event Operations class soon that will be once a week for 5 weeks. This is something that I have really been looking foward to doing this entire time and I am thrilled that I was able to get into the class.

One last thing, I am going to make a post about my bucket list of things that I want to do while I am here so get ready for that post coming soon.

As always if you have any questions about anything here at Disney let me know and I hope you have a magical day.

-Jen

Housing Inspections

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Hello All,

Welcome back to another post! Today I’m going to be talking about my first housing inspection. Housing inspections are done periodically to make sure that our apartments are in good condition.

Housing gives you a timeline of when they will be checking your house, our dates are June 5-17th. The inspection for my apartment was a little different because we got a new roommate on the 14th so we knew when our inspection was coming. 

The rules for inspections are in the handbook you receive on move-in day. It is essentially having the house clean, no dishes in the sink, trash is taken out and not having any violations when it comes to what you can hang on the walls and doors.

We ended up having ours on the 12th, the woman who did our inspection came around noon and was very nice. She gave us a minute to get everything together that we still had to do and she was very happy about how clean our apartment is.

We had a cleaning crew come through the next day who made sure that everything was move in ready for our new roommate.

So for anyone worried about inspections and thinking that they are going to fail, please don’t stress yourself out about it. As long as your apartment is neat and you take out the trash you will be alright. 

Have a magical day! – Jen

DCP Week 1 & Week 2

Published on by Jennifer K BrownLeave a comment

Hello All,

It has been a crazy first two weeks here at the DCP. I have had a lot to do but so fun so far and I am really enjoying it. Here are some of the highlights so far!

Tuesday May 21st – This was the first full day here so I just relaxed and hung out with my housemates. For lunch my roommate (Nicole) and I went to meet up with the girls that we tried to link with for lunch at Disney Springs. We did a roommate gift exchange with them and they were all so sweet.

Wednesday May 22nd-

Today my housemates and I went resort hopping! We went to Port Orleans: French Quarter, Swan and Dolphin, Boardwalk, Beach Club, Yacht Club, The Contemporary and The Polynesian. It was so fun to get to see each resort and how they are themed.

Thursday May 23rd-

Today was the welcome party for my move in date. It was Disney Villain themed, they had characters to meet, multiple photo ops and most importantly food. Some highlights were all the dancing (the DJ was great), the photo booth and taking pictures with the magic mirror.

Friday May 24th-

Today was a relaxing day of hanging out by the pool and getting ready for Traditions and for training to officially begin.

Saturday May 25th-

Traditions day! This is our first day of work and training where you learn all about the company. I am not going to share a lot about it so that the class is still special for upcoming CP’s, however it was a fun and long day. That night we got our blue ID’s so we could finally get into the park so a few of us went to see the fireworks at Magic Kingdom.

Sunday May 26th-

This was a full day of training at Disney University. My morning class was called “Welcome to Operations”, what stuck with me most from this class is the red, yellow and green zones when lifting. After Welcome to Operations I had my Resort Hospitality seminar all about how the Disney resorts function, how we interact with guests and the 5 keys of resort hospitality.

Monday May 27th-

After another morning of training I went with a friend to Cast Connections, a discount store for cast members, to explore. I got two pairs of ears for 14$ it was a great deal if you know how much a pair costs in the parks. After that my roommate and I went to EPCOT for the rest of the day!

Tuesday May 28th-

This was my first day of training at The Contemporary. We got to learn about this resort specifically and got to tour around. This is also the day I got my costume for my location.

Wednesday May 29th & Thursday May 30th –

Wednesday and Thursday I had off from work so I took advantage and went to Animal Kingdom the first day and Magic Kingdom the next day. Being able to get into the parks at any time has been amazing and it’s a great perk.

Friday May 31st-

This was my first day at my location working with guests. This day was a lot of fun for me personally. We got another tour of the hotel and got familiar with where to go backstage. This day I trained for greater and runner, two of the 5 stations we will be at while working.

Saturday June 1st-

Today was another training day. I left early to get to work well before the time I had to be there, however I ended up being late because the bus I was on broke down half way to work. I had heard that this kind of this happens often I just was t expecting it on my second day of on the job training. This day I trained in the dining room cleaning and stocking from 4pm until close at midnight. I got out of work at what will be my normal end time at 12:50am.

Sunday June 2nd –

Today I had a day off and so did most of my roommates so we decided to take a trip over to Blizzard Beach in the morning. It was a lot of fun and after doing summit plummet I don’t think I have to do it again, it was far more painful than I expected. After the water park we went home for a bit then headed out to Animal Kingdom in the evening.

A lot happened in the first two weeks and I know I am missing a lot of things, so if you have any questions or want to know more about something I mentioned comment below!

Have a magic day – Jen

Travel and Move In Day

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Sunday May 19th 2019 – Travel to Orlando

Today I woke up at 6 a.m. to get to the airport for 8 a.m. for my 9:15 flight. Getting out of the house was easy, I had everything ready so to go, so we got the car packed quickly. Once I got to the airport I did roadside check in for my bags and got through security in about 10 minutes. Boarding was super easy and the flight was on time so overall it was a successful flight!

I landed in Orlando about 30 minutes early at 11:30 and my grandparents picked me up at baggage claim. We then spent the rest of the day getting the rest of the things that I needed for move in the next day.

Monday May 20th 2019 – DCP Move In Day

I woke up today at 5:30 a.m. because we had to leave my grandparents house by 6:30 to get there for my 8:45 check in with plenty of time.

We got to Disney around 7:50 then waited until 8:20 to make the drive over to my apartment for the 8:45 check in. I got to Chatham a little early but they let me check in anyway. I got my housing ID photo taken and checked in with the system. Getting into the complex was easy, at the gate my grandparents said they were dropping me off then got a visitors parking pass for the time they were here.

I got into my apartment around 8:50 and met two of my housemates, they had all moved in earlier in the day. I am in a 4 bedroom 8 person apartment, we currently have 7 new girls and one girl who is leaving tomorrow for her new housing because she extended her program. As I am writing this it is 11:30 a.m. and I still have not met one of the roommates. She was gone when I get here and hasn’t been back yet. I did end up getting the roommate I linked with and we are in room 3.

After I loaded my things into the house I headed over to casting early and got through all of the paperwork and things I had to do. After that I came back and unpacked all of my things and got the room set up.

Later that night the 6 of us went to dinner at the Olive Garden and then to Walmart to get some things we all needed.

My day ended around 11:30 p.m. so it’s safe to say it was a long and successful day. I got to meet some great people, I have a lot in common with my roommates and I can’t wait to see the thing we do this week before we start work.

If you have any questions please leave them bellow and I will do my best to answer them! Check back in next time for a first week rundown and all about traditions. I hope you have a magical day!

-Jen

Packing for the DCP

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Today is my last day at home before I leave for me DCP for 8 months! This has been a crazy few days, I graduated Wednesday and I leave tomorrow (Sunday).

I am not the type of person who enjoys last minute packing, I like to have a plan and to be ready weeks in advance. This short time to pack and get ready has been very stressful but I am ready and shockingly have everything ready to fly down. Now let’s break down how I packed.

I am flying southwest down so I get two free checked bags up to 50lbs and a carry on bag and oh boy are those two check bags heavey. One bag has ALL of my clothes and shoes and the other has towels and other miscellaneous things that I am going to need. The clothes bag weighs 48lbs and the other bag is 41lbs.

I wish I could tell you that I spent to much time thinking about each thing I was bringing and how many of each thing I need however I had two things that I thought about when packing. 1- do I need it? 2- Does it follow the Disney look? If the answer was yes it went in the bag.

Unpacking from college and packing my life fit into two large suitcases within two days is not something that I recommend people to do but it is definitely possible and can be done.

For the things that did not fit and were not shipped, they will be bought in florida the day before move in, things like toiletries, hangers, the matress pad and other little things.

If you have any questions about packing for a DCP or how I managed to get everything to fit leave that in the comments of this post!

Stay tuned for posts about the travel process and moving in coming very soon! I hope you all have a magical day! – Jen

All of the bags that I am brining to my DCP

Park Placement

Published on by Jennifer K BrownLeave a comment

Hello All,

Exciting News! I got my part placement and arrival iteneraty for May 20th! I am so nervous to find out where I am going to be working and where I am going to be living.

My hope is that I will get placed in Magic Kingdom or Epcot but we will see where they end up needing me. As I am in QSFB I can also get placed at multiple locations in one park so I will be interesting to see what ends up happening.

THE EMAIL CAME IN! I got the email at 4:50pm, much later than I thought we would get it so here it goes!

I will be working at The Contempo Cafe in The Contemporary Resort/Hotel and I will be living at Chatham! As far I know my roommate is in the same housing complex so fingers crossed for Monday!

It took me a little bit to process where I am working and bring a positive attitude with it, obviously it was a dream to be in a park but this will still be good. The pro’s for this location for me are working in a hotel setting, something that many event planning jobs want you to have, it is inside so I will be in AC all summer, it is one of the nicer resorts on property, it is close to magic kingdom, and I can still pick up hours in the parks!

I have only seen one other person in the Facebook pages post about having my location so I can’t wait to see who I will be working with.

Stay tuned for my last post before move in talking about packing for flying!

DCP Interview Process

Published on by Jennifer K BrownLeave a comment

Hi All,

Today I am going to be talking about what my hiring process was like for the Fall Advantage DCP for 2019. I want to start by saying this is just my experience and everyones application timeline is different.

My experience with the application was very easy, I applied on a Saturday, about 10 minutes after submitting my application I got the email asking me to complete the WBI (Web Based Interview). The WBI takes about 30-45 minutes and is times to make sure you are activity taking the interview. It was like any job personality survey, they wanted to know about your work ethic, your personality and other general things disney is looking for.

I completed the WBI the day after receiving the email and about 20 minutes after I completed that I got the email to schedule my PI (phone interview). They allow you to select the date and time that works best for you so I selected a date for the next weekend in the afternoon.  I have seen many videos of people preparing for the interview and being stressed about how it will go, however I did none of that and I honestly wasn’t nervous at all. I went in thinking I was just going to do my best, talk about my strengths and if it didn’t work out it wasn’t meant to be.

The PI takes about 15-20 minutes but they wants you to be ready for them to call 15 minutes before the time you picked. The number they call front will most likely be “no caller ID” this way you can’t call them back and it keeps the recruiters phone line open. In my interview she started with going over how the interview will be set up so I would know what order we would talk about things in.

Here are the big things I remember. She asked about “The Disney Look” and if I understood the guidelines, the big thing was tattoos and if you had them, how big they are and where. We talked about comfort level being outside in the florida heat, and she asked a few questions about guest interaction and how I would handle situations. We then talked about roles, this is the time for you to tell them what role you are most interested in, my recruiter didn’t ask so I forgot to bring up what I really wanted. This does not guarantee you will get that but it’s good for them to know. At the end you have time to ask any question you have, like an interview you should have one or two questions prepared. I asked if she had done the DCP and how she got to where she is now with disney.

After my interview I did not think I was going to get in, I felt that it was not my best interview and I didn’t feel a connection with the recruiter like I had hoped. Thankfully I was wrong and found out about a week later that I was accepted!

Timeline in total for me was about 2 and a half weeks. I applied on February 16th, I did my WBI on February 17th, I had my PI on February 23rd and I got my acceptance on March 4th. This is a very short timeline and I know lots of people’s process takes a lot longer. I was very lucky with how quickly mine was.

If you have any questions about the process let me know!

-Jen

Fall Advantage Acceptance

Published on by Jennifer K BrownLeave a comment

Hello All!

I was recently accepted to the fall advantage 2019 program for the Disney College Program! The DCP is a semester working, living and learning at Disney that all college students and recent grads can apply to. When I got the acceptance email on March 4th I was shocked, I honestly thought my interview went badly and it was a lost cause!

I will be working in Quick Service Food and Beverage at Walt Disney World in florida from May 20th until January 2nd. We find out where we will be working about two weeks before we move in (STRESS!)

I know a lot of people have questions about the application process and what you need to to do get hired. I will make another post about my application experience so if you have any questions let me know!

Welcome to The Disney Times

Published on by Jennifer K BrownLeave a comment

Hello All!

Welcome to my Disney Blog, The Disney Times! This is were I am going to be posting about all my adventures at Disney. I will be posting before the program about packing, I will talk about training, move in day, do weekly posts for the duration of the program! You will see cute pictures and get the answers to any question you have about the program!

I hope you all stick around and lets get started!!!