You Call It Vacation, I Call It Home

I am now moved into my new apartment with my amazing roommates and I am having the most incredible experience of my life! And it's only been 2 days! This is going to be a fairly long post, but don't worry, there's pictures!

So, here's a little breakdown of how the first few days have gone.





MOVE-IN DAY: At the bright and early hour of 8:30am, I arrived at Carnegie Plaza to begin my Disney journey. After checking in and completing all of the necessary paperwork, I finally got the keys to my apartment and discovered that I got the roommates I had been hoping for! After months of talking with these girls, I couldn't wait to meet them all. When we had all finally arrived, it was like we had known each other forever. There was no awkward "hi, how are you?" just lots of hugging and excitement!

My roommates and I on move-in day!

Now the actual process of moving in was a bit more complicated. With about 200+ people moving in all on the same day (at different times, but still, that's a lot of people), you can imagine that the elevators were a bit overcrowded. Thank goodness I only live on the 2nd floor! I was so worried I had severely over packed but once I saw everyone's piles of boxes and suitcases, I definitely realized that I was not alone in the over packing. Unloading 5 people's girls' stuff into one apartment was chaotic! There was stuff EVERYWHERE! Thankfully by now, everything has found a home in our new place and I must say I kind of love my home away from home.

We have a kitchen, a living room, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. While I may be in the 3 person bedroom (bunk beds included), I also got lucky with the walk-in closet! Thank goodness, because I have no idea where we would have put 3 girls' clothes in this rather small place. Within the next few days I hope to make another post with a picture tour of the apartment.

My family and I in front of DCA

About 8 hours later, my family and I headed to Downtown Disney for a very late lunch/early dinner at ESPN Zone. After eating and shopping around for a few hours, we headed back to my apartment and they went back to my aunt's house about 30 minutes away. That night, my roommates and I headed over House of Blues for the first night out with our fellow CPers and had an amazing time! There was drinking and dancing and lots of picture taking! As we rode the tram into Downtown Disney, the fireworks inside the park started and it's very possible that I may have teared up while watching. It is still hard to believe that this is now my life.

Night out at House of Blues

DAY 2: The first morning our new place we all had the lovely opportunity of waking up early to attend Orientation and find out a little bit more about our program and the cast members who will be helping us along the way. This was short and sweet, which was good because we were all exhausted from moving the day before. After making a trip to Target for a few things and some groceries, I headed back to the apartment, finished unpacking, and took a much needed nap. Naps are going to become my best friend, I can already tell.

Later that evening, we had the DCP Welcome Party out in the courtyard. There was pizza, dancing, a DJ, a photobooth, and some prizes. At the Welcome Party, everyone wears their college gear and it's a fun way to find out if there's other people from your school or hometown.

My roommates and I at the welcome party.

After the welcome party, my roommates and I got dressed up and headed over to Rainforest Cafe for our first (of many) roommate dinners! When we came out of the restaurant, it was once again time for fireworks so of course we had to stop and watch them. Two nights in a row! Dreams really do come true! Anyways, from there we headed over to Trader Sam's Tiki Bar at the Disneyland Hotel and had some drinks with our fellow CPers.

Roommate dinner at Rainforest Cafe

As I sit here and write this, on probably the only morning I will sleep in for the next 5 months, I cannot stop thinking about how truly amazing this experience is. At our orientation yesterday, they told us that out of the 30,000 people who applied to this program, there are only about 260 of us who were accepted into the program at Disneyland Resort! I am so unbelievably excited to start working in the parks and to continue meeting new people.

Tomorrow I have Traditions, which is also my first paid day as a Disneyland Cast Member, and then tomorrow night my roommates and I will be making our first trip (of many, many, many more) together into the parks! And for Paige (my roommate from Georgia), it will be her first visit to Disneyland EVER and I am so excited to experience that with her!

"Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy."