Favorite Ride at WDW

For lack of anything better enough, because I don't have anything to update on my DCP yet, I'm going to post a story about my favorite ride in all of Disney World. (Ironically enough, it’s not even in Magic Kingdom as everyone expects.) While I love a LOT of rides in Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios Twilight Zone Tower of Terror holds a place near and dear in my heart.


Words cannot describe how much I love this ride. Not only is it fantastic, but I have one of my fondest Disney memories on this ride. In the spring of 2009, I got to perform at Downtown Disney with my theater group and not only was that a dream come true, but I got to spend two days at two parks with my closest friends. The day before the performance, we went to Magic Kingdom and stayed basically all day there. The next day, we performed for hundreds of people and then split up into groups to go to Hollywood Studios. This was the one park I had never been to before. I went with my four closest friends to explore the park and begin our adventure back in time to the 1940’s Hollywood scene.

We got to the area with ToT and Rockin’ Roller Coaster, we grabbed a fastpass for RRC and headed over to wait in the 15 minute line for ToT. At this point, we interacted with the cast members there who were trying to scare my youngest friend out of riding and provided a lot of entertainment for all of us. We finally got inside the ride and the lobby was BRILLIANT. The cobwebs, the time period furniture, the AIR CONDITIONING, I loved it. We got to go into the room to the right, and we stood back, not knowing what to expect.

When the lights suddenly went out after a rather convincing lightning strike and the TV appeared out of the bookcase, I was completely enthralled and sucked into the story of the Hollywood Tower Hotel. Being a huge Twilight Zone fan, I enjoyed the short episode telling the story behind what went wrong in the Tower, and then being told that I was to be the star of the next episode in my own still working maintenance elevator- lets just say…I was excited.

After walking through the boiler room, we boarded our elevator and rode the ride, I won’t explain much else just so people can ride it themselves and be as surprised and excited as I was my first time. But I will say that we loved it so much, we rode it two and a half more times throughout the rest of the day.

That’s right, two and a HALF, because my friends, on our fourth ride through the ride STOPPED. Right before we got to the point in the ride where the elevator would drop, the ride stopped and after sitting a few minutes in the dark, the lights came on with the kind audio telling us that our ride has indeed stopped. With nothing to do other than wait for the Cast Members to get us, (Because someone in the other elevator had a panic attack and had to get off the ride, and because of that they couldn’t just start the ride again, they had to evacuate and reset the ride) we began to talk to everyone in the elevator with us. We found out that we were riding a group of kids visiting from Wisconsin and one of them had never ridden a ride in her LIFE. NEVER. So instantly, we blamed the whole ride being stopped on her (she was a good sport about it) and then everyone in the whole elevator began singing random Disney songs.

We were just finishing our rendition of There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow when I decided to look at my phone and see what time it was. By this point, we were stuck in the ride for 30 minutes and my group was now late for our check-in time to leave. I had to call our troupe leader and explain that we were only late because we were currently stuck on Tower of Terror.  At first she didn’t believe me, but I was never one to lie to her so she told me that it was okay, to take my time and to keep her posted. When the CM’s finally came to get us, the Wisconsin group decided to sing Kumbaiah and we were let off the ride. We were offered to cut the line and ride again, but since we were late, we couldn’t.

My best friends and our Cast Member savior

So my friends and I got to ride the real working elevator in Tower of Terror and to prove it we took pictures on my phone with the official cast member manager of the ride on the elevator. We ran all the way to the entrance of the park only to have the entire troupe, minus our leaders, not believe that we were stuck on the ride. We had the pictures to prove it and they still didn’t believe, but I don’t really care about that.



The only picture of me, and it's blurry. Gross. (I'm the girl in the black shirt)

 Being stuck on that ride was one of the best experiences at Disney that I’ve ever had, and not a lot of people could say that about being stuck on a ride, but it’s true. My friends and I tell that story all the time and even though we’re all in college now and we don’t get to see each other as much, we still talk all the time and try and visit whenever possible. But Tower of Terror gave me that moment, and it will always be my favorite ride in Disney World, no matter what anyone says about it. :)

(Sorry for the long post, I’m seriously missing Disney right now. Only 68 more days!)

Weekend at Disney!

Okay, so I just came back from my little weekend getaway to Disney World and I looked at everything differently there since I'm going to be a Cast Member. I actually noticed a lot of the things that they did and I even met and spoke with someone who was on the College Program.

His name is Sam and he's from Wisconsin, he was working at Disney's All-Star Movie resort. That day he was writing down when the buses were arriving and leaving the resort, so while I was waiting in line to catch the bus to Magic Kingdom, he noticed my totally awesome Avengers shirt and walked up to me and started a conversation. He told me that he LOVED working at Disney and he extended his program and I'll be able to see him when I start my DCP in August. We bonded over our love of Thor and Iron Man, why I wanted to stay in Chatham, and the fact that we're both college program Cast Members (well, I will be, I'm not an official CM yet.) So, in short, I'm already going to know one cast member when I get down there and I'm totally excited! He said he'd be looking for me in August, that made me smile.


While exploring Magic Kingdom, I noticed all of the different QSFB jobs at the park and the All-Star Movie resort and a lot of them were pretty cool, I noticed merchandise, and character attendants, but I mostly paid attention to attractions and the costumes. Some of them, honestly, are horrible. There's no way to look remotely attractive in them, but everyone is wearing them, so it's not like you are the only one dressed horribly. Haha. But then there are some when the inner nerd in me WANTS to wear them. For example, the new Fantasyland costumes.



New Fantasyland costume designs



You can't tell, but they have mini coattails. <3



I personally think they're wonderful and I would LOVE to wear them. The only ones that I have seen in person so far are the Dumbo's Circus ones, but I didn't think to take a picture myself, so I took this one off of the Internet, I have no idea who they are. Sorry! D:

But I also noticed the Pirates of the Caribbean costumes, and they were wonderful. I loved all of them. I'm not entirely sure, but I think they were just revamped or something, because I don't remember them looking that awesome. (I tried to find a picture, but I didn't find one of the new ones...) I want to wear one SO bad. I mean, to get to dress up like a pirate ALL THE TIME? That is seriously a dream come true for me. Haha.

The Haunted Mansion ones were the same, and they look wonderful, but I wasn't too thrilled with the CM's "performance" while I was there. Now, they are testing the new Fastpass system, which I don't know a lot of details about, but I really don't think that Haunted Mansion is in need of a Fastpass... But I'm sure I'll blog about that later when I have more details. Anyway, back to what I was saying, because of this new Fastpass line, the waiting queue is a bit messed up. They just added the Interactive Graveyard which is SO cool and the sign says "Entrance right" and "Entrance through the Graveyard left." But because of the new FP line, the right entrance is only for the FP people. You do have the option to wait along a hastily constructed green wall, or going through the slightly longer graveyard queue, but it's very crowded, and very uncomfortable and awkward. 

Now this is understandable because they just started testing the new FP, but the CM's did not seem "in-character." They were saying all of the correct lines like "Fill in all the dead space!" and "Step lively!" But they were SHOUTING them like they were just normal people doing their job. Maybe they were stressed, it was hot, but at the same time, it kinda ruined the fun of Haunted Mansion. Don't get me wrong, the ride was amazing, the new hitch-hiking ghosts were hysterical, I rode the ride twice in a row, but you're supposed to get the creepy vibe of the ride from the very beginning. The CM's are not supposed to be happy looking, (which in Florida heat and humidity is TOTALLY easy to pull off) and they're supposed to have dead-pan voices. Ha. I'm so witty They're supposed to make you feel like the house is really haunted, not that it's just another ride at Disney World.

Maybe that's just me, maybe you think I'm a crazy Disney-freak, but that's why I love the idea of Disney World. It's a place where you can get away from the real world, away from the annoying college students who are rude as you place your order at Quiznos, away from the stress of work, school, life, etc, and enter a "World" of imagination, fantasy and fun. You can visit the fairy tale characters you love, go on a wild and dangerous adventure, see the world of tomorrow, conquer the wild west, go back in time when things were simpler, and adventure into America's history in a fun, air-conditioned way all in one place.

The whole point is to tell the guests the story of the new world that they just entered, and to make them forget their stress; it's the cast member's job to help them. It makes me sad that no one really seems to think that way, because that's what Walt wanted the experience of Disneyland and Disney World to be. That's why he was so innovative and popular, he provided something new and wonderful to the world, but now it's considered old news. No one cares as much anymore, and the people that do are laughed at and called crazy. Story of my life It makes me sad.

But altogether, my weekend was WONDERFUL, don't get me wrong. I saw many characters and I remembered how much I loved the Mad Hatter. He noticed me and danced with me the three times I saw him during the Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it Street Party. I rode Space Mountain five times in one day, and took a picture with Mickey Mouse for the first time! The All-Star Movies Resort was awesome and I loved it, SO much. I even got a Mickey Mouse waffle for breakfast one day. Aha. Awesome.

I Have Roommates!

Ahh!!! I'm so excited!

Looking for roommates is incredibly hard when you're under 21. For those of you who don't know, the apartments at Disney housing are divided into Wellness (under 21) and Non-Wellness (21+). Obviously this is to make sure no one is doing anything illegal under Disney's watch and if anyone in a Wellness apartment is found with alcohol it's immediate termination from the program.

But anyway, I've been searching for roommates since I was accepted, and at first no one seemed to have the same arrival date as me, then everyone was over 21 and not interested in "babysitting" as one person told me. Rude.  Then when I did find people under 21, they were interested in drinking and partying! Excuse me? Do you guys not care about your program? You crazy. The Facebook groups aren't that helpful either, I've been looking but EVERYONE is over 21 or partiers, or people who wouldn't get along with someone as nerdy as I am...

But finally, I found roommates! They're both one year older than me and rooming together. One is even working Pirates League! I am so jealous! Pirates League is the pirate equivalent of the Bibbibi Bobbidi Boutique princess makeover, but it's better because you're transformed into a PIRATE! So, I'm very excited for her, because she gets to dress like a pirate every day! Dream job.

The other is working QSFB which is Quick Service Food and Beverage, which means she'll be working one of the food carts in one of the parks, which is still exciting, but hard work. But she's in the same boat as I am, not knowing which park we'll work in or what land we'll work in. It's so suspenseful!!

Anyway, we've been emailing each other back and forth and we're getting really excited, but we still need to find one more roommate. One who will be sharing a room with me. It's incredibly difficult. I almost had a roommate and we had everything in common and were talking every day, but then Disney called her and asked her to change her arrival date. SAD. (They didn't really provide a reason though...) We can't be roommates if we don't have the same arrival date.

So back on the roommate hunt again. Ho hum.

Whoa

So, after a month of not posting anything on here and reading other DCP blogs and forums, I realize how freaking excited I am. I'm literally bouncing in my seat right now. I have 117 days to go! I just need to share my excitement, so hopefully someone will humor me by reading this.

I'm excited about finally being able to live on my own. Well, I guess I'm really just excited and NERVOUS. I've always had my own room my entire life, so obviously suddenly having to share a room is going to be a big transition. But the good thing about this is that I'll finally know what it's like to live on my own and how to support myself financially. Being only 19 years old, I've never had to. Now I'm going to have a job with a consistent paycheck and an apartment to live in, buying my own food and anything else I need. (It's also going to be terribly hard to NOT buy everything at Disney World...Cause I admit, I have a "buy everything in the Disney Store" problem. I'll get over it...hopefully.)

I'm also excited about finally being able to see the fireworks at EPCOT for the first time, and being able to see Fantasmic! for the first time. Whenever I got to visit Disney World, my parents would always get tired and would want to beat the fireworks crowd out of the park so we could get on the monorail without much trouble. So, I never got to see the shows. I finally got to see The Magic, the Memories, and You! on my 18th birthday because that's all I asked for (and I got to see it twice. :D)

Now, I understand that its not going to be all sunshine and rainbows, that people are in fact rude or mean. I like to say I'm prepared for that, but no one ever really is. I know that there are going to be serious reality checks and I'm going to be exhausted. I know I'll have good days and bad, but I believe that I'll be able to get through it. I'll just focus on the good to help me get past the bad, and talk to my family almost every night to keep off the homesickness.

One thing I am very nervous about is the language barrier. I know a lot of foreign guests come into the parks every day and I'll be working attractions, so how will I say "Your child is too small to ride." or something along those lines? Hopefully during training they'll tell me how to handle those types of situations. :)

What I'm Looking Forward To...

So, there are a lot of things that I'm looking forward to about this program. I can finally go to the parks that I've never been to before! For free! I've never been to Animal Kingdom, or fully explored Hollywood Studios. I can get into Magic Kingdom all I want and explore EPCOT ALL the time.(I wonder if I can get into Disney Quest for free... Hmm. That would be AWESOME.)

• Disney Quest is the four-story arcade in Downtown Disney. They have all different kinds of games and "attractions" inside. For example: There is a whole floor dedicated to virtual reality Pirates of the Caribbean games. When I found this out, I FREAKED. There is also a floor where you can design your own roller coaster, then RIDE it. (Virtually, of course.) But still! How awesome is that? Ah, the inner nerd in me is having a freak out happy moment. I don't know what the other two floors consist of. But I'm sure they're full of awesome.

• Animal Kingdom- I have never been there. I know, I know, that is such a sin for any Disney lover, but I've never been a big fan of zoos, and thus, Animal Kingdom has never interested me before. My parents didn't see the point of paying for the tickets if no one was really interested. But I have always wanted to experience it ONCE and ride the ride with the Yeti. I'm sure I'll do the Safari ride at least once. I want to see the shows there and see the Tree of Life. The DCP gives me the opportunity to do this. (For free. As many times as I want.)
• Hollywood Studios- I haven't properly explored this park. I went for the first time last year, and I after I left, I found out that I only explored HALF of the park. I didn't know there was more. Once I got to Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster, I didn't leave that area. It was kinda awesome and sad at the same time. I kind of want to work here too. I loved the Art of Animation section of the park, I learned how to draw Pluto and Dopey like a pro.  

Other than getting into the parks for free, I found out that I can go on specific Cast Member tours/events in the park. Like, riding Space Mountain with the lights on, or taking a tour of Haunted Mansion with the lights on!!! How cool would that be?! I could also get discounts on tours and even do the Cast Member only tours.

• Cinderella's Castle Tour- It's just something I've always wanted to do, to see the suite that people can stay in at the Disney resort. I mean, how does that work? Do people actually stay in there? Or is it a tease? Imagine if you stay in there and the park closes, and suddenly you want to go ride It's a Small World? Could you do that? Idk. It'd still be awesome.

Since I'll be there in the Fall, I'll get to be at Disney for the four major holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. I've always wanted to see the parks during the holidays, but usually the tickets are a little more expensive, and my parents don't understand why I would want to go to Disney World for vacation. ("Vacation time is to relax, Katie." I call shenanigans on that.)

(This is the show from last year, and I reallllllly hope I see it this year. :D )

• Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween is something that I've always wanted to see with my own two eyes. It's obviously around Halloween, and the characters themselves are in "costume" and the villains walk amongst the guests! I am a HUGE fan of all of the villains. (My absolute favorite being Dr. Facilier from Princess and the Frog. :D)  There is also trick-or-treating for the guests! You go to a ride, and you get candy. Not just one piece, but roughly 4 or 5 per ride. Crazy! The inner-child in me is freaking out now too.  
• Disney at Christmas- I think this is pretty much self-explanatory. Magic Kingdom decorated in thousands of Christmas lights, there are carolers everywhere, the parades are supposed to be fantastic, and in Hollywood Studios, it SNOWS. In Florida. They make it snow every day. Sure, it's soap flakes, but still. I'm a huge Christmas fan, and I can't think of anywhere else to bring ALL of the magic of Christmas to life than Disney.

I don't actually know what they do for Thanksgiving or New Years, and this will be my chance to find out! There isn't a whole lot more to say about how excited I am, but this is just laying out the specific things that I know are going to happen while I'm down there.

I'm Officially Accepted!

Yay!! I got this email today! I'm so excited! Now I get to explore the website to the fullest and get all of the information I need! I have a LOT of documents to fill out and they have these two guys who talk to me through videos and of course they're super cheesy. One looks like Jonah Hill before he cut his hair, its actually kinda hilarious.

I have the option of filling out a roommate survey, but I'm not entirely sure that I want to do that. According to that, I'd be stuck with that person no matter what, so if we do meet before the program and we don't like each other, we're stuck. Hm, maybe I will. I can also play a mini-game thing, called "Mission Time Keeper," which is where you can test your knowledge of Disney history. :) I'd like to think I'd be good at it, but for some reason I can't sign into it. Lame.

Well, that's really as exciting as it gets for right now. I get to spend my time filling out documents and making sure I have a passport. Aha. That will be fun. I also realized that I have to save all of my money from now to August. No more movies for this girl! Sad. But totally worth it. :3 Only.... 6 more months!

Welcome to my blog!

Hey everyone! What does one say about this blog? Hmm, well lets start off with why this blog exists.

My name is Katie, I'm 19 years old, and I'll be spending my Fall 2012 semester of college in the Disney College Program, (DCP). I'm not going to go into much detail about what the program is, but if you're really interested, this is the website: disneycollegeprogram.com. :) This blog is mainly for the purpose of keeping my friends and family updated on what happens in my life while working at Disney World, and to educate anyone else who might be interested in knowing what the DCP is like.

While I'm at Disney World, I will be working attractions. As an attractions cast member my responsibilities include:

1. Working in one of the Disney theme parks with any one of the “rides” or theatre shows;
2. Loading and unloading Guests from an attraction;
3. Operating sophisticated ride systems;
4. Memorizing and delivering lengthy narrations on a microphone to large groups;
5. Handling the evacuation of an attraction when necessary;
6. Monitoring Guest flow and providing a safe Guest experience;
7. Assisting with audience control, including during parades;
8. Operating a motorized vehicle;
9. Cleaning areas surrounding attractions;
10. Working with FASTPASS ® systems

Whoa. That sure sounds like a lot, huh? I can't even begin to describe how freaking excited I am! I really want to work at either Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios. I always wanted to be one of the Jungle Cruise skippers, or one of the creepy people who work Haunted Mansion or Tower of Terror. Not only are they super clever with their death puns, and are super awesome at being creepy, the costumes are fantastic! Especially around Halloween. (You get to have cobwebs and extra creepy makeup added to your costume.) Example:

"Fill in all the dead space." "Step lively." "Step into the dead center of the room."

(Ahahaha. Death puns. Classic.)

Or, I'd like to work Pirates of the Caribbean, cause anyone who knows me knows that I could totally be a pirate all day every day without any complaint. Haha! But the ultimate nerd in me wants to work the Star Wars ride. I've never ridden it myself, because when I went to Hollywood Studios, it was closed, but I know it exists and I'm so excited!

I leave for Disney World, August 20th, so I still have a ways to go, but I'll be keeping the blog updated until then. This blog gives me something to get all of my excited feelings down on virtual paper. Haha! Until next time!