I'm here!

Well ladies and gentlemen, I am HERE! I'm in my room in The Commons (apparently in the part known as the 'ghetto' because it's so far from the clubhouse and bus stop!), with my lovely new roommate Grace. We've only just unpacked because we kept getting sidetracked by the internet, haha.

My journey here was relatively smooth. I met Bryony and Bradley at the airport and our flight to Atlanta was good. I'd never flown Delta before but I was actually quite impressed. Comfy seats, decent choice of films, all right meal, can't really complain.
Our flight arrived early so we didn't have as much of a rush as we were expecting to have when we got to Atlanta, which was good. We all went through immigration with little trouble (Bradley's immigration officer had never done a Q1 visa before so that took a while, but besides that no problems!), but then our plane to Orlando had mechanical difficulties so we had to get off it and get on another one! This meant we were 2 hours late getting into Orlando, but the rest of our arrival group had still waited for us, which was so nice of them!

We all piled into a Mears shuttle and got to Vista Way where we assigned our housing, which turned out really well. The 2 boys were put as roommates, and Grace, Emma, Laura and I were put into an apartment altogether, with Bryony in an apartment just across from us.

We went on a late night shop to Wal-Mart, which basically consisted of us sleepily wandering around as quickly as we could and trying to remember all the necessities. We all wayyy overbought and trying to carry it all was quite tricky! Luckily Ben somehow managed to carry both his and Bradley's stuff so Bradley helped Emma and me with ours.
Back in our rooms, we made our beds then just passed out!

Today we didn't have to be anywhere til 12.50 so we spent most of the morning trying to fix our wifi. Laura and I unplugged every single wire in the vicinity of the modem and the router and somehow this made it work! Success!
Then we went to Vista Way to do loads of paperwork stuff, came back to the Commons for a video presentation on stuff not to do (apparently we can't have toy guns. 5 year olds in the parks can have them, we can't. That's cool), then got the bus to Downtown Disney for some FOOD.

The 7 of us, plus another UK guy called Simon that we'd found, ate in Planet Hollywood. Good times. Honestly felt like SO LONG since we'd have a proper meal! Afterwards we walked through Marketplace (with detours into Ghiradelli and World of Disney, obviously!) to the bus, and went to the Polynesian to watch Wishes on the beach. We couldn't hear the music as well as I'd thought you could, and the Electrical Water Pageant kiiiinda got in the way, but it was a lovely way to end the day so I'm definitely not complaining!

We got a bit lost trying to find the cast member bus stop to get back, and were on the bus for an hour because a road was closed, but eventually made it back here!

This is actually the longest entry I've done, pretty sure. Let's see if I can keep this up ... (don't hold your breath kids!)

Last night at home.

Tomorrow my parents and I will be spending my last night in this country in a hotel by the airport, so tonight is my last night at home for a year. Such a strange feeling.

I'm almost all packed, but there's still some things to sort out. It's been coming for so long it still hasn't quite clicked that I don't have ages to pack any more and tomorrow is actually my deadline!

I've had a busy weekend, which has helpfully taken my mind off the impending move, but now it's really hitting me and I'm struggling to get any kind of motivation to do that last bit of packing. I'm trying to pump myself up by thinking about the weather and free entry to Disney parks and Lucky Charms but honestly? None of it is working.

This will probably be my last post from Britain so the next time I blog I will be in Florida and hopefully having an amazing time that will have kicked this aching feeling miles away!

One week tomorrow!

I'm back home in Cardiff and I'm happy to report that now the sadness of leaving my job behind has passed, I'm actually starting to get excited! I have a massive list of things to pack, which I should really get started on buuuut ... na. Well, I have already started packing but in a more 'I can't be bothered putting this dress away, might take it with me, into the suitcase it goes!' way than with any actual strategy to it.

I've got a list of things to do and I'm managing to tick them off quite successfully. I've printed out everything I need (still need to photocopy my passport and birth certificate, though), got myself some dollars, cancelled my phone's contract type bolt on thingy, asked for my phone to be unlocked (whether that'll actually happen, though, we shall wait and see!) ... etc.

The 7 of us Brits in our arrival date are going to all meet at Orlando airport to get the shuttle to Vista Way together, and I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone! We've been chatting on Facebook for months, in this GIANT thread, so it'll be lovely to finally meet these people face to face!

2 weeks.

This time in 2 weeks I'll be ... either on a plane or in Florida. Time zones make it a bit confusing to work out! But yeah, it's coming FAST.

I had my last day at work on Sunday, and I'm moving back home tomorrow. I'm hoping that once I'm back home and have started packing and sorted out the last bits of paperwork things will feel more real because at the moment I'm STILL in denial. This can't be healthy. I want to be excited, I really do. I'm struggling. That's why I haven't updated this blog much - I don't want this to be a negative space, but I can't muster the enthusiasm to make it not. Soo ... slightly abandoned. Soz.
Don't worry, I'll get into the swing of it when I'm actually there because it'll be all 'OH MY GOD I LIVE IN FLORIDA WHAT IS MY LIFE' and everything will be okay.

42 days to go.

Since I last posted I've got myself a visa, hooray. Haven't actually had my passport back yet, though, so let's hope it's redelivered on Wednesday as it's supposed to be.

The whole visa experience was as confusing and tedious as when I did it for Colorado. You have to ring up the American Embassy with their extortionate premium rate phone number to book your appointment, then you pay a ton of money for the privilege of potentially having a visa, then you fill out a ridiculous online form (the DS-190) that takes ages and gets a bit stressful when you worry you've not put exactly the right thing. Then you go to London and sit in the Embassy for 3 hours, to only speak to 2 employees for a grand total of about 3 minutes. Fun times for everyone. On the positive side, the girl at the first window I went to had actually done the CRP program herself and had actually just reapplied! It's a small world etc.

I've still got a load of things to sort out:
- Insurance
- Contacting tax and student loans people
- Organising a leaving do
- PACKING

Thing is, this would all be much easier to sort out if my brain were actually in gear. As it is, it still feels ages away (it's not. It's 42 days away) and I'm not even a little bit excited. I feel as if I should be but I'm just not. Hopefully I'll feel better when I manage to get a few more things sorted out.

Flight booked!

This time in 3 months I will be in Florida! Hard to believe. It still feels like so far away.

I have finally booked my flight! I'll be flying from Heathrow on October 16th with Bryony, yay! I've never flown with Delta before but it was by far the cheapest flight, so I went for it. Hopefully some more of our arrival group (which is now 7 people strong!) will join us on that flight.

Next thing on the list is insurance, but I'll deal with that when I return from my Midwest road trip ...

99 days to go!

It's now 99 days until my start date, and I'm still yet to book my flights or sort out insurance. Somehow October still seems like a long way away, but it's only 3 months now, eek!

One of the girls that I met before the group interviews and had meals with after both the group and F2F interviews, Bryony, has just been given the same start date as me, which I'm really excited about! There's now 5 of us all going out on October 16th so hopefully we'll be able to sort something out so we can all fly together.

Things are all a bit all over the place in my life at the moment - I'm living at the house of one of my work friends so I can stay at work for an extra 3 months before I leave (the tenancy on my flat down here ran out yesterday and since I'm obviously moving to Florida it didn't make sense to move somewhere else for such a short time).
I'm going on holiday with my parents next week, to Colorado and beyond, so I'm pretty excited about that!

I'm starting to mentally plan what clothes and shoes I'll be taking with me, because that's obviously the most important thing.

I'll hopefully get some things sorted in the next month or so and keep you updated!

I DID IT.

Congratulations!

You have been offered a position on the Disney International Programs – Cultural Representative Program.

Your role on the Cultural Representative Program will be in Food & Beverage

Your program arrival date will be October 16th 2012

Your program end date will be October 11th 2013

Yes, that's right. I GOT A PLACE!

I'm so ridiculously excited and happy and just ... relieved, to be honest. Almost everyone else who applied has been put in that same horrible not-quite-waitlist limbo that I was in last time, and I'm so ridiculously glad I don't have to go through that again. I like to believe that maybe my previous waiting is the reason for me being one of the few people to actually be given a date. Whether it's true or not, I'm not sure, but I'm choosing to believe it for now!

We were supposed to find out on Tuesday, but Tuesday came and went without any word. On Wednesday someone on the Facebook group got a reply from Becky saying that we should find out by the end of the week. And, thankfully, we did!

I'm yet to find anyone else with the same start date as me, so I'm hoping that means that some of the people I met at the interviews could still be coming out there with me. I really hope for their sake that the waiting is short and sweet.

I'm so happy that I FINALLY know what I'm doing. I feel as if my life has been on hold for the past year and a bit, and all that waiting has paid off. I get to go to WDW for a whole year. Actual dream come true, right there.

F2F ... again.

I survived my second face to face interview! Fingers crossed it's also the last one I'll have to go through ...

As last year, everyone with interviews on the 14th from our lovely Facebook group arranged to meet up at Costa beforehand. It seemed as if most of the people there were from the Manchester pre-screens, so there were lots of new faces! We all chatted about our various pre-screen interviews, filling out the forms etc before making our way round to Disney HQ where we all had our pictures taken and were given our guest passes.

The presentation was different to last year's - no Valerie! I was half disappointed, because I was looking forward to her ridiculous over enthusiasm, but it was also a bit of a relief!

I managed to win one of the prizes (another screen cleaner wipe thing!) for answering a knowledge question at the end of the presentation, oh yeah. It was Jeff*'s 'I'll be very impressed if anyone knows this' question, so obviously I'm still mentally applauding myself for knowing that useful bit of Disney trivia.

After we were all given our interview times, a bunch of us made our way to Wetherspoons to wait for a couple of hours. We all got food and chatted about ... well, Disney and the interview process, mostly! My interview was at 2.20 so I headed back to HQ a bit before 2, then was finally let back upstairs by the Dragon Lady Gatekeeper. Seriously, this woman was so reluctant to let any of us go upstairs!

For some reason, there were only 3 people there for the interview at 2.20 (there are supposed to be 4; 2 people per interviewer), so Chantelle, who was supposed to have her interview at 2.40, was bumped up to partner me. We both thought this was funny because she'd joked about wondering if we'd be interview buddies again - and we were!
We had Jill, and although she was lovely, she was really hard to read! The interview was over so quickly - I felt as if I was just settling in when she announced, "Well, that's all the questions I have for you". Oh, okay then!

We don't know when we'll find out the results, which is a little frustrating. The Monday interviewees were told next Monday, but Jill said 'in three weeks' to us, so who knows! I find waiting a lot easier when I actually have a set date in mind - I can put it out of my head (or try to) until that day. But not knowing when we'll hear back might drive me a little mad ...

To finish this post, have a picture of me with the original Iron Man suit:

*weirdly, a different Jeff from last year!

Through to the F2F!

HALLELUJAH!

Many thanks for your application and time taken in the pre-screen interview for the Walt Disney World International Programs. We were impressed by your performance and are delighted to invite you to the final interview stage.

Thank goodness for that! I was honestly terrified that I wouldn't get through.

I checked Facebook on my phone and saw everyone posting saying they'd got through, but I hadn't had an email come through on my phone and I had a horrible sinking feeling. So I got on my laptop to check and, thank God, there was the lovely wonderful email telling me I've got an interview!

Most of us in the Facebook group have got through, and I think all of the lovely ladies I met before the pre-screens did too, which makes me really happy. Everyone deserves this.

Only 2 weeks to mentally prepare myself. Eek.

Pre-screen group interviews.

Yesterday was the day of the London pre-screen interviews. I'm really not sure how it went! I keep thinking about it, but I really don't know.

Nine of us girls who had been chatting on the Facebook group met up for lunch in Pizza Express beforehand. That was lovely. Definitely a good idea, as it meant we had people to chat to to kind of burn off the nervous energy we all had! It also meant we had people to walk into Chez Gerard with, so there wasn't that awkward 'oh God, so many strangers all looking nervous' moment!

We all signed in, then went and watched a Yummy Jobs presentation (they must save Valerie for the F2F!), which lasted about 40 minutes. It was different from any of the videos and presentations I'd seen before, so that was good. It was really informative, too - they told us things that, although I already knew most of them from being a WDWIP forum and blog stalker (!), we didn't find out until the F2F last year. So I think I approve of the new way of doing things.

I won some mini Creme Eggs for answering a question, yay! It was the simplest one - name all the WDW parks - and then Nick wouldn't let me answer the one about Aulani because I already had a prize, boo hiss.

At the end of the presentation Becky read out the names and times of what group everyone would be in, and we went and sat outside and waited. I was in a group with one of the girls I knew from the Facebook group, Chantelle, so that was nice. After waiting for what felt like AGES (the interviews were supposed to be half an hour to 40 minutes but most of them went on for almost an hour), the 4 o'clock groups went in.

Most of the questions that Nick asked were pretty similar to the ones we'd have been asked if we'd had a phone interview. I think I answered the questions themselves fine, but with 7 other people in the group it felt difficult to get my personality across as much as I'd have liked. Sometimes I wanted to join in with what someone was saying, but didn't want to seem as if I was interrupting them. I'm not feeling great about it, but I just keep hoping I did enough to get to the F2F.

We were told we'll find out by the end of Monday, which is so close! Definitely need to keep myself busy until then.

Pre-screen interviews!

YES. SCORE.

After review of your CV the Yummy Jobs Team is delighted to invite you to the next stage of recruitment for the Cultural Representative Program.

This next stage will be a pre-selection event where the Yummy Jobs Team will conduct a full program presentation and group interviews.

We found out a couple of days ago (by 'we', I mean all of us in our lovely Facebook group) that instead of phone interviews Yummy Jobs would be holding regional pre-screen events. I've no idea why they've decided to do it this way, and I'm not sure whether it's a good or a bad thing! All I know at the moment is that it's different to last year, which puts me feeling very much out of my depth! They've not done interviews this way for the CRP before (as far as I'm aware) so all those blogs and video blogs I've read and reread and watched and rewatched about the phone interview are suddenly useless! Well, no, I imagine the questions we'll get asked will be quite similar but the scenario? Totally different. I've never been to a group interview before! I've no idea what to expect!

Still, I'm so excited and glad to have got through. I had this horrible feeling of 'what if I got that far last time, but this year I'm just rejected straight away?' This is a good start! Really gutted for the people who didn't get through, though. I just kind of assumed that everyone in the FB group had the kind of enthusiasm that would show through in their application and that we'd all at least get through to the first interview stage.

I'm also excited by how much more quickly this year's applications are going than last year's! The applications only closed 2 days ago, and we've already found out the results! The next round is the 25th/26th, with the F2F interviews in mid February. So much quicker! I approve of this. Let's hope this bodes well for me, shall we?

Starting again.

Just received this email:

After reviewing the possibility of additional positions arising, I do regret to say that today we have been informed that they do not anticipate further positions to arise at Walt Disney World before September 2012 that you may be considered for.

Not all that surprising, really - I didn't expect them to suddenly find a bunch of places for us remaining Opportunity List-ers. But it still hurt to see that. You always try to hold out hope, don't you? (well, I do).

I've already reapplied - I did it last week, after emailing Yummy Jobs about the applications reopening earlier than expected - so I suppose it's time to focus on that. The email that I got after applying says that:

We will be contacting you in mid January 2012 with more information regarding your application and the next step of the application process.

So hopefully this whole process will go a little more quickly than the last one. And maybe - just maybe - this time I can go the whole way, rather than falling at the final hurdle.

Uh, what?

So, um, this has happened:

UK Applicants: Applications are now open with an anticipated deadline of January 10th, 2012 at 3pm GMT

Yes, that's right, the applications have opened early! Instead of opening on January 4th, as Yummy Jobs told us they would a while back, they're now closing on January 10th! Which is fine, groovy, great. Except ...

Except that I'm still on the Opportunity List. And haven't been contacted by Yummy Jobs to let me know what's going on. Obviously I've just emailed them, since we were told that if we hadn't been given a place by the time the applications reopened (this was when the applications were to open January 4th) we'd be released to reapply. As it is, I'm not sure what's going to happen now. Part of me hopes this means they have at least a vague idea of dates and that we (I say 'we', as far as I'm aware it's just me and another girl who are still waiting!) will be given one - or at least assurance that we'll be given one - without having to go through the application process again. Actually, a lot of me hopes that. But somehow I feel that's a little optimistic!

Oh well, nothing I can do about it at the moment. Que sera sera etc. It's just so frustrating still not knowing what's going on when it's been almost a year since I applied :(

One month down, three to go.

Just thought I'd post an update, since a month has gone by ... even though, to be honest, there's nothing to update. Nobody has heard anything. Which, I suppose, is sort of good. At this point I want all of us that are left to get dates, or none of us. Is that selfish? Quite possibly! But I just know that I don't want to end up being the only one without a date, and I don't want that for anyone else who's left waiting either. We've gone through all of this together, I want us to come out of it together as well!

It's just a little bit depressing because one of the girls who I applied with is already out there, with another girl leaving in a month. Having all of these people on Facebook makes my heart ache a little because I don't know if I'm ever going to be able posting statuses and photos like they are :(

I'm currently working as a 'Food & Beverage Assistant' at a hotel, so I'm hoping that'll help my reapplication in January; I mean, I got this far without that, so maybe, just maybe that could give me the extra push? Or at least make sure I get that far next time, and then be even better at the interview.

Oh well, only another 3 months and 3 days until I can apply again ...

'Opportunity List Update'

The end of August came, and it was getting to the point where we were beginning to think that we'd been forgotten about, until we received an email at ten to 8 in the evening. I'm so glad I was busy yesterday, otherwise I'd probably have been going crazy refreshing my inbox every 10 2 minutes!

The email said, basically, that we have to keep waiting.

And as it is now the end of August we did want to send an update regarding the Opportunity List, and just keep you informed that currently your status is still the same where you are being considered for future roles that may arise at Walt Disney World. These roles can be a variety of reasons, and we will keep you informed of them.

Obviously we all emailed back and asked for a bit more information, and were told that they're going to hold onto our details until January 5th, when the applications reopen. I don't want to have to go through the whole application process again (though believe me, I will if I have to!), so I really really hope that I get given a date in the next 4 months.

I admit, I'm upset. Nick's email in June made it sound as if they were waiting for Disney to give them a whole other batch of dates that would be given to all of us waiting, but that doesn't seem to have happened. When others from the waitlist have been given dates, they've been in dribs and drabs, not all at once as I'd always imagined it to be. So I kept believing (or trying to believe) that the rest of us would all receive dates at the end of August. Turns out, there's more waiting for us to go through. Which, as I mentioned in my previous post, I expected to happen. I did. But that didn't stop it being any less gut-wrenching when I read that email.

The email tells us not to put our life on hold, but how can I help but do that? I can't plan more than a couple of months into the future in case I get given a date.

Less than a week of waiting left (for now).

By this time next week, I'll have finally heard from Yummy Jobs. And as positive as I'm trying to be, and usually am, I'm not feeling great about this. In the time that we've all been waiting for the end of August, so many fellow waitlistees have been given positions, and there's very few of us left (or so it seems) in the Facebook group that are actually still waiting. Admittedly most of the dates that have been given are before mid April 2012 (which was when I said I was available from), but a couple have been after, and I can't help but wonder 'why not me? Was I not good enough?'
Obviously I'm thrilled for everyone who's been given dates - there's a couple leaving within the next couple of months, which is so exciting! There's just slowly becoming less and less of us in the situation that we all started out in.

At this point, I don't think we'll be declined. But I do think that there's a strong chance that we'll be waitlisted. I checked over the emails we were sent by Yummy when they gave out the first 'wave' (as they called it) of offers, and in one Nick states:

At this time Disney has made a number of offers for positions that they have available for 2011 and 2012.

Currently Disney does not have the full number of open positions for 2012 available. We anticipate receiving details of these additional positions by the end of August 2011 at the latest.

Those words 'at the latest' gave me hope at the time - hooray, we could hear sooner! And some many people have. But there's now only 3 working days left until the end of August and it seems less and less likely that we'll be assigned the additional positions by the end of August and more and more likely that we'll be waitlisted until yet another date far in the future.

I want this so much, but I feel as if my life has been on hold - in a way - since I first applied way back in January. Eight months is a long time for life to be on hold. I don't mind if I've given a date that means I won't be going for over a year (since it looks as if they're yet to assign anyone any dates in October, November or December 2012), I just would like to KNOW if I'm actually going. Not knowing is slowly driving me crazy.

6 done, 5 to go.

It's been six weeks since I was put onto the not-quite-waitlist. There's five weeks until the end of August, which is when we've been told we'll hear by, so at least we're over the half way point.

Most days I manage to only think about it briefly (but yes, I do think about it every day. How can I not?), but last night I dreamt* that Yummy Jobs emailed us with our dates, in one big long document with everyone's names and dates in, so that I had to Ctrl+F to find my name (yes, I used Ctrl+F in my dream. I am so cool). And instead of feeling excited, I felt a bit deflated, because I'd waited so long just to be lumped in with everyone else, and didn't even get a personalised email. I've been imagining the moment when I get the email - having my heart jump into my mouth when I see the subject line, holding my breath as I read the email, then going crazy with joy when I read my date - and because it didn't make me feel like doing that, I didn't even tell anyone. Yeah, I don't know, I have really vivid dreams. I just hope that it doesn't actually happen like that.

I couldn't resist checking my email with a feeling of hope this morning, but of course, there was no email. Oh well, a girl can dream.

*Chrome's spell check is implying 'dreamt' isn't a real word. What rubbish.

Not quite waiting.

A couple of days after my last post, Yummy Jobs clarified to all of the people in the same boat as me that we're not actually waitlisted - since they're recruiting for the whole of 2012, they simply don't know all of the dates that they'll need people to go out there yet. They've only assigned 40-50% of the places for the year at the moment, so there's still plenty of dates that we could be assigned. Which is excellent news!

Even better news (although maybe notsomuch for those who were hoping to apply in the summer round of applications) is that the next round of applications don't open until January next year. With only 40-50% of the places for 2012 assigned, and no new applicants being taken on until next year, it means that all of us in not-quite-waitlist-limbo stand a damn good chance of being given a start date for sometime in 2012.

With all my finishing university and moving from Brighton and moving to Southampton and looking for a job, I've got plenty going on at the moment to take my mind off things. Let's hope it continues that way and August will be upon me before I know it!

Waitlisted.

The results of the F2F interviews were sent out today and I've been waitlisted :(

I know this means I have a place (at least, it did for all previous waitlisters), but having to wait until the end of August to find out when I'm going is so frustrating! Especially when there are other people who have been given dates. It just makes me wonder what I did that wasn't quite good enough.

But! I'm trying to be optimistic. It can't be a case of some people being better than others, and therefore being given dates first, because really, if us waitlisters weren't good enough, why would they have waitlisted us at all? Surely they'd have just said no? I'm choosing to believe that there weren't many places and that it was just luck of the draw who was given a place straight away and who was waitlisted.

I've already been waiting 6 months since the application date, what's another 10 weeks? I'll just have to find lots of fun things to do to take my mind off it all!