Day 1 - January 26, 2015
IT’S CHECK-IN DAY!!
After getting ready and all showered for the day, me, Audrey, Rachel, and Deanna had to pack up all our suitcases and bags into the back of a few of Anna and Hayley’s cars! It was a little tight, but we made it work, and then we were all off to Chick-Fil-A for our first meal together as roommates! Then we all headed to our 10:45-11:15 check-in time at Vista Way.
**You are notified of your check-in time via email a few days before your arrival date. Make sure you print out this email, because if you are given a time, you should not arrive earlier than that. If you are not given a time, you can arrive whenever.**
The process:
You have to get in line and then first cast members you meet give you a temporary name tag, you pick up your program guide, and then you are divided into two lines; one is A-L and the second it M-Z.
And now you wait, and wait, and for some reason the M-Z line took wayyyyy longer to move.
Then you eventually get inside the building and meet another set of cast members that give you, can you believe it, YOUR ROLE!
I RECEIVED A LIBERTY TREE SEATER IN MAGIC KINGDOM!!! To be honest, Liberty Tree was definitely not my top choice, but I could not explain my excitement to be placed in Magic Kingdom!
Then you continue along and get to a bunch of desks where you receive your housing placement!
I cannot even believe that my roommates and I got our top choice: a 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom apartment in The Commons!
Next you get your picture taken in that same room for your housing ID so you want to make sure that you have the Disney Look from your shoulders up, because that’s what will be captured in the picture.
You receive you ID right there and then receive your room key as well.
Then you continue through the line and go outside in a covered area and get your itinerary for the first week and are split into a few lines, which eventually form groups.
In these groups a cast member explains to you how to read and follow your itinerary, about drug testing (if anyone in your group needs it – role specific), and about language testing if anyone in the group needs to hear about that as well. The cast member will also field any of your questions that you have then.
Then you continue in more lines and get to an area where you fill out the top part of your I-9 form. There’s someone there to answer any and all questions you have about the form as well, so don’t worry, you’re not on your own.
Next there’s the SafeD tent, where you hear about staying safe, followed by a tent where we received bags, snacks, and heard about recent events.
From there, if you didn’t drive to check-in, Disney provides buses to your complexes.
All in all, the entire process didn’t take too long!
Check-In Facts & Tips:
Vista Way address: 13502 Meadow Creek Drive, Orlando, FL 32821
Make sure you have your I-9 documentation so you can get your housing placement and key, as well as begin filling out your I-9 paperwork.
Dress comfortable, but still look nice since this is a day of first impressions!
Make sure you fit the Disney Look from your shoulders up for your housing ID picture.
Bring a folder to hold all the papers that you are given because they are very important and you don’t want to lose any of them.
Left to Right: Audrey (my roommate), me, Rachel, Deanna, Anna, and Hayley
After check-in, my roommates and I went straight to The Commons and we found our apartment, 1912! We unpacked all our bags and went to see our apartment! We’re on the first floor and we are about a 5 minute (maximum) walk from the Clubhouse and directly across from the mail boxes.
Now don’t get me wrong, our apartment is BEAUTIFUL and I love it, but it definitely needed some attention. After picking our rooms, we went around and filled out our inventory sheet, which was wedged in the door when we first got here.
**Get your inventory sheet done as quickly as you can and don’t be afraid to be picky when it comes to writing down the indents, paint chips, and broken machines or items in your apartment. You don’t want to be held responsible in the end for something you and your roommates didn’t do.**
But that wasn’t what needed the most attention…we didn’t realize what it was until I opened the freezer and fridge! We opened them for about 3 seconds each and had to close them because they smelled SOOOOO badly. And of course that smell had to linger to. At that moment we all agreed that while Anna was at Casting, we would go to Walmart and get whatever we needed and especially cleaning supplies. So before she left, we all sat down in the living room together and compiled some shopping lists. Anna’s parents, since they were still in Orlando for the night, offered to buy our cleaning supplies, which we were all so, so grateful for! (Thank you so very much!)
OUR WALMART EXTRAVAGANZA!
We got to Walmart around 3pm and before we did anything, I picked up the items I ordered online: Mickey shower curtain/mat, shower caddy, mattress topper, and joined pants hangers...and had lunch at the McDonalds inside because we were starvvvvinnnggg!
**Despite that fact that we drove over in Hayley’s car, we went to the Walmart that the CP bus goes to: 8990 Turkey Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32819.**
Well, I thought my late night Walmart trips with Alissa were long, but my roommates and I blew that out of the water. We spent 4 HOURS in Walmart! We started with the personal care aisles and mostly together, worked our way down pretty much every aisle. It was quite a sight to see 5 girls, each with a shopping cart…in a line! I really wish I had thought to take a picture of that in the moment. But we weaved through the store and threw stuff into our carts for ourselves and for the apartment in general. Then after we went through all the food aisles last, we attempted to pull our carts off to the side and out of the way so we could divvy up the shared items and then we went to checkout. Somewhere in that mix, Anna arrived after Casting and added to the mix. Overall, including the cleaning supplies Anna’s family bought us; we spent about $1,200 in Walmart!! Beat that! And then we had to fit all of that and all of us in Hayley’s car. Now that was a feat!
Aside from our Walmart trip being long, let me tell you a little about the Turkey Lake Walmart. It definitely is huge, and being from PA, seeing alcohol in the store is so weird, but it was mad crowded! Apparently, here it is a great idea to take your family to 10 children to Walmart at one time and just stand in the middle of the aisles and not move for anyone. It was very frustrating! Getting all 5 of our carts through in a line was definitely a challenge and not really something I’d want to do again. We’ve all come to the agreement that getting that first trip over with on the first day was very smart of us, because now that we’ve been in our apartment for a bit, we don’t want to have to deal with all of that…we’ll have to deal with that many people in the parks and resorts anyway. We’ve got that covered!
After we got home we unpacked and went right to cleaning so we could put everything away. Now, from all the people I’ve talked to on the buses thus far, I don’t think anyone cleaned like we did. We spent the next 3 hours cleaning everything in our apartment. We’re not saying that it was gross by any means (well, a couple things were…), but it definitely needed to be done.
**I’m going to write up another blog about how and what we cleaned, as well as what we used, in case you wanted to do the same with your DCP apartment!**
I also made secret roommate presents for each of my roommates before I left! I pinterested them large tote bags with a character/movie that they said they liked designed on it! Giving those out was a nice break from cleaning. (:
Then we sat down to our first dinner as roommates, which consisted of pickles, granola bars, mac and cheese, cookies, and cereal. Lots and lots of cereal! Cooking was definitely not on the agenda because we all still had to unpack before we went to bed. Needless to say, the first day was a long, but successful day! I am already in love with my apartment, program, and roommates!