Disney College Program Archives

You are in for one heck of a Disney re-cap, so buckle up!

Not only did Nick & I travel to Gainesville to visit his brother and sister-in-law, but we also made our way to Disney on Saturday! Since the trip down is only about 2 hours, it was the obvious choice. I’m sure by now, most of you are aware that we know how to squeeze as much as possible into a Disney trip! This past Saturday was NO exception!

We woke up around 5:45am so we could be out the door by 6:15am.

We stopped for gas and some McDonald’s breakfast (My first choice was Starbucks, but they weren’t quite open yet). I ordered a egg & cheese bagel. The guy in the back thought I wanted chicken on it and I saw him actually place the chicken ON MY BAGEL, then take the chicken off my bagel, wrap it up and give it to me. Although that was frustrating, I don’t want to waste food, so I ate it – I was just annoyed. Some of you may not understand why that is, but if you’re a vegetarian, then I’m sure you get it.

Anyways… onward and downward toward Orlando we went!

We arrived at around 8:30am and it seemed a lot more crowded than I originally anticipated at that time, but we hustled through the crowd, go our bags checked, and scanned our Magic Bands.

MAGIC KINGDOM

Magic Kingdom was our first stop for the day. They always do a spectacular opening show in the morning and Nick had never seen it, nor had heard that it existed, so he was pretty excited about that!

The characters rode out on the train to wave us all in. Anna & Elsa were there!

The second we got in the park, we ran to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train!! It wasn’t open when we visited in May, so we were both really excited about finally riding it! It wasn’t a big thrill, but it was a lot of fun and the animation was superb! At this point, I expect nothing less of Disney. Somehow our timing throughout the entire day was spot on! They did open the park about 10 minutes early though. We were out of the mine train by 9:10! We were on our way to Splash Mountain when I saw the Peter Pan ride. I’ve only been on it once or twice, but I remember loving the animation in it and you literally feel like you’re flying in the clouds above the rest of the world. We hopped in since it wasn’t even a 10 minute wait. Nick didn’t remember riding it before, so I’m really glad we decided too because he enjoyed it a lot!

We finally made our way to Splash and waited maybe 5 minutes. After Splash Mountain, we hit up Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The wait time said 20 minutes, but we literally walked straight onto the ride. Like I said, our timing was spot on. What we assumed happened (after seeing a thousand little 15 year old international kids) was that they all went on Thunder Mountain first, while we were on Splash. They increased the wait time to 20 minutes. They all finished as we were walking to Thunder and headed to Splash. Basically we bypassed all of them which was awesome because honestly… those tour groups from overseas are my worst nightmare at Disney. That’s another story, for another day from my Housekeeping Days at Disney!

Once we finished Thunder, we ran to the other side of the park – Tomorrow Land! We wanted to ride Space Mountain since it was still pretty early. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a wait, but it’s not so bad because they have games throughout the entire line. I got front seat and that spot can be scary! I felt like I wasn’t really sure if we were going to run into something the entire ride. If you’ve ridden Space Mountain then you know it’s pitch black!

We were going to ride the People Mover until we learned that it was closed for refurbishment. That’s one of our favorite rides, so I look forward to seeing what they change!

We stopped for lunch at Cosmic Ray’s Café in Tomorrow Land. Nick got the burger & fries. I munched on some of our snacks and nibbled on some fries w/ ketchup.

At this point, we decided our time at Magic Kingdom was over and we were ready to head out to Animal Kingdom!

ANIMAL KINGDOM

I had been looking forward to Animal Kingdom ALL WEEK! My absolutely favorite thing is the Festival of the Lion. When we were there in May, it had been closed for refurbishment. They were moving locations. I wasn’t sure if it was opened back up yet until my friend David told me it was!

Our first stop was Mount Everest though which is my favorite ride. We always do single-rider because there is barely a wait time. You could stand in line for 50 minutes the regular way, but it took us about 10min. to do single-rider. After that, we headed for the Festival of the Lion King show. We waited in line about 30 minutes, but I was fine with that – we got great seats! The show was absolutely spectacular (as usual).

I have this list of Disney Experiences/Memories I want at some point during my life. One of those is to be the person they choose for the start of the show. I haven’t made it there yet, but one day it’s happening because I’m practically a Festival of the Lion SUPERFAN! Although that memory didn’t make it this go round, I was able to experience the greatest memory I’ve had to date at Disney.

Have you seen or heard of the Tumble Monkeys? They’re my favorite part of the show! Okay, that’s probably a lie… the entire show is my favorite part of the show. Check out a video of the tumble monkey’s from my trip back in November for the Wine & Dine.

So back to my now greatest Disney memory…. A Tumble Monkey, who we have now established is the coolest thing in the world, hopped up to our seats and HIGH-FIVED US!!!! I didn’t see him coming, but he popped up, I literally SCREAMED, “OMG, YES!!!!!!!” and gave him the biggest and best high five of my entire life! My entire day was made! They’re like celebrities to me. It was epic!

So after that, we did Primeval Whirl and then treated ourselves to a Vegan Donut (which is delicious!) and my fave – Mickey Pretzel w/ Cheese!

We wanted to do Kali River Rapids, but decided the wait time wasn’t worth it. Before we headed on to the next park, I knew I wanted to visit my old Disney Roomie, Nicolina. She’s doing a Professional Internship at Disney right now and I hadn’t seen her in almost 2 years! It was a short reunion, but it was completely worth it just to hug her and hear a little about her life right now! She was such a joy to be around during my time at Disney and I know she’s spreading that same joy to her new Disney friends & cast members!

After our mini-reunion, we took a boat to the Contemporary and then the monorail to Epcot! Epcot was our last stop for the day.

EPCOT

We started off with Starbucks because we knew there was still a lot of the day left to accomplish. While we sipped on that, we found ourselves in Club Cool & Nick had never known you could try the different flavors of Coca-Cola here!

It started raining some, so our goal was to start looking through the countries and if the rain wasn’t too bad, then hurry to the next one before it started pouring. Luckily, it never got that bad and we enjoyed our time looking around!

Nick’s brother & sister-in-law decided to drive down for dinner and my friend got them in so we could eat at La Hacienda de San Angel & watch the Epcot firework show. Before they arrived though, we had a fast pass for Soarin‘ and it’s one of our favorite rides because it’s so relaxing! Somehow we managed to squeeze that in right before our dinner reservation. I got a hefty run in from Soarin’ to Mexico though!

The evening ended perfectly with dinner & fireworks! I also got to catch up with my old Disney friend and fellow Housekeeper, David!

I enjoyed the veggie enchiladas and Nick & I split a Margarita. They also served black beans & rice for the table.

So for the record: We accomplished 3 parks, 8 rides, 1 show, 1 extra awesome high five from a tumble monkey, visiting with 2 special friends from Disney, 2 restaurants, 1 fire works show & one of the greatest Disney days I could have asked for!

I am a little shocked that we made it back to Gainesville safely because we were both unbelievably exhausted from this full fun-packed day! Little side note: Katy Perry was there on Saturday as well and stayed in Cinderella’s Castle. No I did not see her because if I had, we’d have a picture together.

Questions:

What is your all time favorite Disney Memory?
What’s your favorite Disney ride?
What’s your favorite Disney show?
I would love to know you if you’ve been able to accomplish more in a day at Disney, because you’d be my hero, so introduce yourself below!

I know it’s no shocker to each and every one of you that I love Disney. I did the Disney College Program a little over 2 years ago now! As I reflect on my time at Disney, I realize that I could have done a lot of things differently. Knowing that I can’t relive the past and I can only learn from my mistakes & experiences, I have come up with a list of things that my experience during the Disney College Program taught me!

Relationships make all the difference

I left for Orlando and I knew NO ONE. Not a single person. I knew who I’d be rooming with via face book, but i took the plunge into the Disney Abyss with not a soul to help me along the way. Disney was not an easy experience for me. I can assure you that I considered leaving the program more times than I can count. Relationships make all the difference though. If it were not for some of my roommates and if it were not for mainly this guy right here, David, plus his roommate Austin, I would have left. I would have said good-bye and been gone from Disney forever! I stuck around though because these people made it worth it. When I was depressed or upset, David and I would go out to the parks. He was always up to do something – no matter how exhausted he might have been from work or how annoying I might have been at any given time – he was my buddy and he helped me get through. I hated my job. HATED IT! If David didn’t work along side me, I would have been out of there faster than I can say “Humbug”. Those relationships matter to this day though. They would not be as strong if it were not for the length of time I spent at Disney. I continuously keep up with David and my roommates. When I went through Gainesville on my way to Disney last November, we stopped and had dinner with David and some of his friends. When I head out to Texas, I try to get together with my roommates there. David and another roommate of mine are heading back to Disney this summer to work and I will be there to visit them, no doubt! For me….. and my difficult experience…. relationships made all the difference in the world. I’m so grateful for that!

It’s good to get out of your comfort zone

Like I said…. I didn’t know any one when I left for Orlando. I was scared out of my mind!! I always had big dreams for myself that I would do something like this, but when it became a reality, I was devastated. I realized though that this experience – WAY out of my comfort zone – was one of the best decisions of my life. It challenged me to figure out who I am, not based on my family, not based on Nick, but based on ME. It encouraged me to take a leap of faith. It forced me to make friends and put myself out there for others. It taught me things that I like and don’t like about myself. Disney made me jump outside of my comfort zone and although it was scary, it was one of the best things for me. Now, when I’m timid or freaking out, I remember that being outside of comfort can be good and instead of resisting, I should embrace it.

You can use mistakes as a learning opportunity

I made mistakes throughout my Disney College Program Experience. One of those being how I handled some situations with my roommates. Others being not taking advantage of where I was and the opportunity I had. I definitely learned from my roommate situations. I realized there were better ways to handle certain controversy. I saw some qualities in myself and in others that I didn’t like and knew I didn’t want to continue or mold in to. One of the biggest mistakes I made though was not allowing my experience to be all it could be. There were days when I sat in my apartment, alone, depressed, and frustrated. I wish I had gone to the parks more, put forth more effort to visit friends at work and experience Disney for myself when no one else could join me. Now, I strive to take advantage of those moments. I let some of the greatest days of my life pass by without realizing that they were that. I learned to appreciate my surroundings and the people I’m with at any given time. I learned to find the positive in each situation. I used the mistakes I made at Disney as a learning opportunity to live my life differently.

You’re never “too old”

Do you ever feel like you’re too old to do something? Walt’s desire was to teach everyone, of any age, that they’re never too old. As a 24 year old, I love Disney! I love Disney movies, I love Disney parks, I love Disney. Period. I will never be too old to love Disney! You have dreams & ambitions? GREAT! You are not too old to achieve those (or too young!). We’re too often told that our time has passed, that we’re too old for something, but I don’t believe that anymore. I didn’t expect as a 22 year old, to fall in love with Disney like I did. To allow myself to live care free like a child. It was an exhilarating experience. I’m not too old for anything! I will be 80 years old and still love Disney – maybe I shouldn’t ride some of the rides for fear I’ll have a heart attack lol, but I will never be too old to experience Disney and the child-like feeling it brings! Like I mentioned above, it goes the same way for when you feel “too young” to accomplish something. Just remember that age is not a factor when it comes to achieving your dreams and living the life you want to live!

“ADULTS ARE ONLY KIDS GROWN UP, ANYWAY!” – Walt Disney

“THE WAY TO GET STARTED IS TO QUIT TALKING, AND BEGIN DOING” – Walt Disney

“WHY DO WE HAVE TO GROWN UP? I KNOW MORE ADULTS WHO HAVE THE CHILDREN’S APPROACH TO LIFE….. YOU SEE THEM AT DISNEYLAND EVERY TIME YOU GO THERE. THEY ARE NOT AFRAID TO BE DELIGHTED WITH SIMPLE PLEASURES, AND THEY HAVE A DEGREE OF CONTENTMENT WITH WHAT LIFE HAS BROUGHT, SOMETIMES IT ISN’T MUCH, EITHER!” – Walt Disney

What is an experience that you learned a lot from? Any lessons I should know about that will help guide me in my future?

I high-fived a Tumble Monkey!

4 Things I Learned From My DCP Experience

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