I originally planned to make this post into a vlog, with an apartment tour, however my phone (which the video is recorded on is being uncooperative at the moment, so I'm hoping to have that video up by the end of the week. The video itself is really just me briefly showing you around my apartment, this post will actually have more detailed information.
So Vista Way was my first choice for DCP housing and I was lucky enough to receive my first choice. My roommates and I wanted to live in Vista for a couple of different reasons-- There are 4 of us total, and we wanted to keep it that way. Since the DCP started the whole bunk bed thing, we became a little bit worried that we'd be sharing a bedroom with 3 people, and this was just not something we wanted. The rent is much lower in apartments where there are triples in the bedrooms, which means that if you're looking to save some extra money this might be a good option for you, but we were really not interested in adding an extra person to the bedrooms. At least for the Fall 2014 program, Vista Way is the only apartment complex that does not have any triples. We decided then that we would rather have 2 more roommates (6 people total, with 3 bedrooms) than risk having a triple in another complex. Another reason why we chose Vista Way was for the location, especially for me, because I did not bring a car. Our apartment complex is in walking distance of a couple of restaurants, and a Walgreens. This is perfect for me and my lack of car, because if I only need a couple of things I would much rather walk to Walgreens than deal with taking the bus to Publix or Walmart. The inside of the apartments did not actually weigh as much in our heads for where we wanted to live. They really are all pretty similar, and the set up of them is just dependent on personal preference. We particularly liked the setup of the bathrooms at Vista-- 1 inside each bedroom, but there is also a sink outside of the bathroom, in a little nook in the bedroom. This is extra helpful for a group of girls because two sinks can be used at the same time, or someone can be using the sink while the other person is in the actual bathroom. I also like the setup of the washing machines in Vista. There are washers and dryers on the first floor of every building, which you have to pay to use, but I like how they're conveniently located in each building. In some of the other complexes, you need to walk to another building to do laundry, and that was not exactly something I would have liked to do. The Commons has a washer and dryer inside each apartment, however the rent is much more expensive, which did not turn out to be worth it for me.
Our apartment was recently renovated, and while I have not seen (at least in person) the un-renovated apartments, I hear that ours is a huge improvement. One thing about our apartment that really stands out to me is the new paint. The older apartments have all white walls, which to me gives off a more dorm-y vibe. Our apartment has a darker tone to it in some of the rooms, which makes it a little bit more homey. We also have hardwood floors where there used to be carpets, which again really does not make a huge difference, but it does make the apartment look a lot nicer.
When we first moved in, some parts of the apartment were dirty, but it seemed like mostly renovation sort of dirt if that makes sense. (Like the person who re-installed our shower did not remove all of the debris from the tub.) In theory, we could have called the front desk about some of those issues, but we ended up cleaning them ourselves to save time. We really just wanted to unpack on that first day, and waiting for maintenance to come would have been a bit of a waste of our time. We've had some problems with our dishwasher, but the front desk has been helping us resolve those as well. Basically, if you're worried that you're going to be in an old and crappy apartment, there's no need to worry because the front desk of your building will take care of you. Just give them a call, or go there in person, and tell them what's going on, and they'll fix everything for you.
Vista Way has a certain reputation as the party complex, but I can dispute those rumors right now. Maybe things were worse around here before the hot tub was filled in, but for as long as I've been here everything has been fine. If you want to go out, and go to parties, it's really easy to do that here. There are lots of parties in the complex, and there are party buses that bring you to certain bars and clubs in Orlando. If you don't want to go out or party, that's fine too, no one is making you do anything you don't want to. I assume this goes for every complex, you can just as easily avoid the parties if you want nothing to do with them, I wouldn't let the perceived reputation of a complex keep me from trying to live there.
Lastly, the security at Vista (and all of the Disney apartments) is... interesting? No matter how you get onto our property, you need to show an ID. To take the Transtar buses, you need a college program ID. To walk onto Vista property (say you're coming from Walgreens and walking home,) you need to stop and show a security officer your housing ID. If you're driving onto property, you, and everyone else in your car, will all need to show housing IDs. While it can be annoying to dig out my ID while I'm carrying all my groceries, it is nice that they're so strict about this, so that other random people can never have the ability to enter our complex. The downside of this is ordering food-- if we get food delivered, we need to meet them outside of the complex. So if I want to order Chinese food for instance, and hypothetically I'm ordering it because I look like crap and don't want to leave the house, I would actually need to get dressed and wait outside, since the delivery driver is not allowed in our complex (even if his car does have a giant Dominoes logo on it.)
I think I've covered most of the major points for Disney housing, if anyone has any other questions please let me know! Comment here or on Facebook!
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Saturday, August 30, 2014
DCP Arrival & First Weeks
Apologies for the delayed posting, I've been super busy since I arrived here in Florida about 3 weeks ago now!
On August 3, I arrived at Orlando International Airport, where one of my roommates, Holly, picked me up. We spent the day walking around the Boardwalk at Disney and some of the more touristy (but non-Disney) sections of Orlando.
view from the Boardwalk
The next morning was our check-in date for the DCP. We arrived bright and early at about 8:30 AM, to wait in what was to become the first of many lines for that day. During check-in we received our program guides, and temporary name tags, and then got to find out where we were living and working. Holly and I ended up rooming with Paulina and Lexie, the girls we met on Facebook and planned on living with, and we also got our first choice of a 4 bedroom 2 person apartment in Vista Way. We were all very happy with our work locations as well. Paulina is working at Under the Sea, the Little Mermaid Ride in the Magic Kingdom, Holly is a Jungle Cruise skipper, and Lexie works at Spaceship Earth. I got my first choice of merchandise in Animal Kingdom, though I'll be in Dinoland which was slightly unexpected, but I was still pretty excited about it.
After check-in we went to Casting, where I met up with Lexie for the first time. Casting was essentially a series of different lines and meetings. We needed to be background checked, which included being finger printed, and we had a lot of paperwork to go over. We also received our schedules for the next couple of days. Once Casting was over, Lexie and I went back to our apartment to start unpacking. A few minutes after we got there, Paulina came in, and all 4 of us were together for the first time.
We went to Walmart later that day, and managed to fill Paulina's car with food, cleaning supplies, and furniture for the 4 of us, and we stopped for takeout, because there was no way we were going to cook that night.
The first day was extremely hectic and exhausting. I would compare it to moving into college as a freshman, but worse.
The next few days were filled with classes at Disney University (aka training) and tours of some of the theme parks. Every Disney Cast Member needs to go through Traditions, which is a program that introduces new Cast Members to the company and its core values. For me, I needed to attend DAKlimations, since I would be working in Animal Kingdom. I really enjoyed the guided tours we got of the parks, however it was really uncomfortable to be wearing business attire during it. By the end of DAKlimations my feet were killing me from walking around in dress shoes, and I really wish we could have just worn sneakers, or something, instead.
Outside of Disney University after one of my classes
Part of DAKlimations included getting our costumes, which was an experience in itself. My first time at the costuming building during DAKlimations was hugely overwhelming. There were just racks upon racks upon racks of costumes, with all of the accessories in different parts of the building, and everyone was scrambling to find the right sizes and try everything on, and it was just a total mess. Disney's sizes are also terrible-- the rule of thumb for Disney costuming is to take your regular pants size and double it. So if you're a size 10 for instance, and you want to work for Disney, be prepared to wear pants that are labeled as a size 20. The Cast Members working at costuming told us that we should stock up on the winter gear now (hats, gloves, coats...) as it tends to go quickly once the weather cools down, but I was so done dealing with anything inside that building, and I was overheated from rushing around, so putting on a winter coat was the last thing I wanted. Hopefully there will be some left if I do actually need them, but it wasn't much of a priority for me.
When DAKlimations was over, I was able to begin training. The only class I had left to take was Merchantainment, which is a class specifically for Merchandise Cast Members. This class covers all of the basics of working retail, as well as tips for handling different situations, and ways to entertain our guests while working in Merchandise. (Get it? Merchantaining?) This class was kind of amusing to me because we all went to a classroom with a bunch of cash registers to learn how to use them. It was just really funny, seeing a classroom full of cash registers, you would have thought it was much more difficult than it actually is by the way the room looked.
My on the job training was interesting. For whatever reason (that I honestly don't quite understand) The trainers for my area were not necessarily Cast Members from that area. They were Cast Members who had become trainers, but they were not necessarily from Dinoland. It was also weird because I had 3 trainers, and each day I was by myself. Other Dinoland CPs were trained in small groups, and while I liked being alone because I probably got a more customized experience, it was kind of annoying that I was held up from meeting new people for a couple of days. The training schedule was also weird to me. There are certain things that you only do in training that you don't regularly do, so the first couple of days on my own were a little bit confusing because of this.
Oh, and of course, once we went to Traditions (on the first Thursday we arrived), we've been able to go to the parks for free, so that's where most of my free time has gone! Up next, more details of Dinoland training, and apartment info!
Thanks for reading! :)
On August 3, I arrived at Orlando International Airport, where one of my roommates, Holly, picked me up. We spent the day walking around the Boardwalk at Disney and some of the more touristy (but non-Disney) sections of Orlando.
The next morning was our check-in date for the DCP. We arrived bright and early at about 8:30 AM, to wait in what was to become the first of many lines for that day. During check-in we received our program guides, and temporary name tags, and then got to find out where we were living and working. Holly and I ended up rooming with Paulina and Lexie, the girls we met on Facebook and planned on living with, and we also got our first choice of a 4 bedroom 2 person apartment in Vista Way. We were all very happy with our work locations as well. Paulina is working at Under the Sea, the Little Mermaid Ride in the Magic Kingdom, Holly is a Jungle Cruise skipper, and Lexie works at Spaceship Earth. I got my first choice of merchandise in Animal Kingdom, though I'll be in Dinoland which was slightly unexpected, but I was still pretty excited about it.
After check-in we went to Casting, where I met up with Lexie for the first time. Casting was essentially a series of different lines and meetings. We needed to be background checked, which included being finger printed, and we had a lot of paperwork to go over. We also received our schedules for the next couple of days. Once Casting was over, Lexie and I went back to our apartment to start unpacking. A few minutes after we got there, Paulina came in, and all 4 of us were together for the first time.
We went to Walmart later that day, and managed to fill Paulina's car with food, cleaning supplies, and furniture for the 4 of us, and we stopped for takeout, because there was no way we were going to cook that night.
The first day was extremely hectic and exhausting. I would compare it to moving into college as a freshman, but worse.
The next few days were filled with classes at Disney University (aka training) and tours of some of the theme parks. Every Disney Cast Member needs to go through Traditions, which is a program that introduces new Cast Members to the company and its core values. For me, I needed to attend DAKlimations, since I would be working in Animal Kingdom. I really enjoyed the guided tours we got of the parks, however it was really uncomfortable to be wearing business attire during it. By the end of DAKlimations my feet were killing me from walking around in dress shoes, and I really wish we could have just worn sneakers, or something, instead.
Part of DAKlimations included getting our costumes, which was an experience in itself. My first time at the costuming building during DAKlimations was hugely overwhelming. There were just racks upon racks upon racks of costumes, with all of the accessories in different parts of the building, and everyone was scrambling to find the right sizes and try everything on, and it was just a total mess. Disney's sizes are also terrible-- the rule of thumb for Disney costuming is to take your regular pants size and double it. So if you're a size 10 for instance, and you want to work for Disney, be prepared to wear pants that are labeled as a size 20. The Cast Members working at costuming told us that we should stock up on the winter gear now (hats, gloves, coats...) as it tends to go quickly once the weather cools down, but I was so done dealing with anything inside that building, and I was overheated from rushing around, so putting on a winter coat was the last thing I wanted. Hopefully there will be some left if I do actually need them, but it wasn't much of a priority for me.
When DAKlimations was over, I was able to begin training. The only class I had left to take was Merchantainment, which is a class specifically for Merchandise Cast Members. This class covers all of the basics of working retail, as well as tips for handling different situations, and ways to entertain our guests while working in Merchandise. (Get it? Merchantaining?) This class was kind of amusing to me because we all went to a classroom with a bunch of cash registers to learn how to use them. It was just really funny, seeing a classroom full of cash registers, you would have thought it was much more difficult than it actually is by the way the room looked.
My on the job training was interesting. For whatever reason (that I honestly don't quite understand) The trainers for my area were not necessarily Cast Members from that area. They were Cast Members who had become trainers, but they were not necessarily from Dinoland. It was also weird because I had 3 trainers, and each day I was by myself. Other Dinoland CPs were trained in small groups, and while I liked being alone because I probably got a more customized experience, it was kind of annoying that I was held up from meeting new people for a couple of days. The training schedule was also weird to me. There are certain things that you only do in training that you don't regularly do, so the first couple of days on my own were a little bit confusing because of this.
Oh, and of course, once we went to Traditions (on the first Thursday we arrived), we've been able to go to the parks for free, so that's where most of my free time has gone! Up next, more details of Dinoland training, and apartment info!
Thanks for reading! :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)