The End of this Chapter

Having to leave Walt Disney World meant leaving my amazing job that I truly loved, and the wonderful guest interaction. It meant not living 10 minutes away from Disney and getting to have fun adventures in the parks whenever I wanted to. It meant leaving the best people that I had the pleasure of living and working with for the past 7 1/2 months. It meant saying "see ya real soon" to so many people, but not actually knowing when "soon" would be. It meant driving towards Texas, but driving farther away from my real home. It meant the end of my Disney College Program, the one thing I had been waiting and wanting to do for TEN YEARS prior.

Move Out Day

Move out day was one of the hardest things I've ever had to experience. The tears and sadness that filled our apartment was symbolic of just how close we grew.  

The day pretty much consisted of attempting to fit everything in my car, turning in my ID and key to the front desk, and then the worst part, the "see ya real soons."

Here's a glimpse of the day:

I was so glad that Cynthia, my best friend from work, came by before I left. She and I have such an amazingly similar love and appreciation for our favorite things about Disney, like the monorails, resorts, and Wishes. She always made work so much fun, and all of our trips together to the parks, too. I'm so proud of her because she is staying with Disney for a Professional Internship! Love you Cynthia, and so grateful to have a best friend like you in my life!

Patterson Court #11207

So on those rare occasions when I wasn't at work or playing in the parks, you might ask, where did I sleep?! No, not in the castle or in the resorts, but in Disney Housing!

I realized that in the craziness of Check-In, I never posted any pictures of my apartment complex! As part of the Disney College Program, there are 4 apartment complexes for CP's to live in: Patterson Court, Chatham Square, The Commons, and Vista Way. The complexes are about 7-10 minutes away from Disney property. Each complex has a variety of 1, 2, 3, and 4 bedroom apartments -- and each bedroom has either 2 or 3 people.

Prior to arrival, my roommates and I ranked our housing selections through an online submission, but we didn't find out which complex we would be living in until we checked in!

My Last Day of Work

January 3, 2015. This was my last day as a Walt Disney World Vacation Planner. This was one of the days I'd been truly dreading.

On the DCP, your last day of work is two days before your program's end date. This gives you the last two days to pack up, go to the parks, and get moved out.

The first true realization of the end of your Disney College Program is when you open up your work schedule at 12:00 AM on Saturday night the week before, and see the words that you knew were coming, but never wanted to actually appear:

End. Of. Program. My new three least favorite words.

New Year's in Disney

I thought Fourth of July was pretty busy. I thought Food and Wine Festival was very busy. I thought Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were insanely busy.

New Year's Eve was an entirely different story!

Our predicted crowd level at Epcot for New Year's Eve was incredibly high, so I knew it would be busy, but I had no idea just how many people came to Disney on New Year's Eve! I started out at Epcot that morning at 6:00 AM, helping to tape down extended queues for the booths, because the lines would definitely be going past our already extended chains! We then went over to the Ticket and Transportation Center for our HERA pilot shift which began at 8:00 AM. After only being at the TTC for about an hour, the Magic Kingdom hit it's first capacity phase close. When this happened during the pilots, we were sent to other parks.  

Happy New Year from Epcot!