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CRP 2012/13

23rd Mar 2012

Riding Dragons and Helping Superheroes at Islands of Adventure

Arrival CRP 2012/13 Days Off

Wednesday evening we went back to WalMart for a second trip to get food and stuff we had forgotten the first time. Corin, from the March 6th group, and her friend Ashleigh from Canada came with.

When I got back I started sorted a Wireless router for the apartment, $22 from the Front Desk which was nice and simple and means I can now blog and Skype from the apartment nice and easily. After I got online I spoke to Katie, also from March 6th, as I had been told she was in an apartment in the same block. She said a few of the UKs were around at hers so I popped down to say hi, turns out she is literally the apartment below me. It was nice to meet some more UKs especially ones I have chatted to on Facebook for the last few months.

Universal was just a little bit busy!

On Thursday morning we had agreed to meet at 10am to get a taxi to Universal. It was pretty reasonable, about $25/30 between 6 of us. We walked all the way down to Islands of Adventure through an extremely busy CityWalk, it is Spring Break at the moment so everywhere is packed. There was a pretty long wait at the ticket window, when we finally got to a window we tried to persuade them to give us Florida Resident discount based on our housing IDs, the girl tried to give it to us but after she phoned a manager she said she couldn’t so we had to get non-Florida resident passes. It was only $30 more expensive – about $290 including tax which was not too bad. That gets Merch and Food discounts and has no blackout dates. She was very pleased to be selling 6 annual passes, lots of commission I guess, but when we came to pay the system would not accept any of our cards. Turns out it was the entire park having a system problem! Thankfully we all either had cash or went to the ATM to get cash and were sorted but it took quite a long time.

We went straight to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and rode Dragon Challenge with a 20 minute wait. I have never been to IOA before so it was all new to me and was a lot of fun. The park was SO busy, we decided against the Forbidden Journey as they wait was very long and we wanted to do as much as we could. We wandered around for a bit before eventually getting lunch where we realised we got a discount with our annual passes (yay!). Then we rode Jurassic Park and got just wet enough to cool off nicely in the hot sun. When we rode we left our valuables in a locker outside. After the ride we grabbed everything back and were heading down to Marvel when I realised I did not have my phone! Cue a fast run back to ask them to re-open the locker, thankfully it was still there and tucked behind a corner in the locker which meant I did not see it the first time – lucky escape!

Later in the day we rode Spiderman which broke in the middle so we were allowed to re-ride as well as Dr Doom which I actually really enjoyed despite being a little terrified to start with. We finished the day with the Hulk coaster which I have to say actually hurt although it was enormous fun.

We got a taxi back to the Commons for a few chill-out hours before heading to Downtown Disney for the evening. We wandered around for a while before heading to Paradiso 37 for some drinks which was a really nice end to a very busy day.

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21st Mar 2012

First Day of the Disney CRP

Arrival CRP 2012/13

I’m here! March 20th began early (and not so bright) with a 5.30 wake-up for a drive to Gatwick. My sickness bug decided to try to rear its ugly head again which made the goodbye scenario a little more painful than it needed be. Checking in was simple and security was really fast and just as I went through I got a text from the girls (Lesley, Sarah, Sian and Emily) telling me where they were waiting and I found them pretty much as soon as I walked into departures. After a quick breakfast stop we were off to the gate and soon on the plane. The flight was long and fairly uneventful although I did get to watch the Muppets which I have waited to see for ages.

We made it to Orlando and eventually onto Mears

We had agreed with Craig and Rosie (the other 2 UKs on our date) that we would text them when we arrived and try to meet up for the Mears shuttle. As luck would have it I got a message from Craig saying he was waiting at Mears as we were about to board our shuttle – unfortunately it turned out to be a different Mears desk so we missed each other by a few minutes. We arrived at Vista Way and were met by the ever-lovely Programs Staff who showed us a quick video and gave us some information and free food and drink in the from of water, fruit and cookies. Then it was off to our apartments, we were all in the Commons.

I had Block 28 (the furthest possible block to walk to) which I sort of gulped at when I got it but it turned out to be a nice 2 bed apartment with some really nice roommates so I am pretty pleased. I am sharing with a Mexican, an Italian and a French guy who is my actual roommate. After 30 minutes to meet and greet the roommates we were off to WalMart on the bus (specially extended for new arrivals) – we just grabbed the bare essentials, bedding and breakfast with a plan to go back later to get proper food and stuff. While we were waiting for the bus we bumped into Rosie and a canadian girl, Candice, who she had met on her Mears shuttle.

After I got home I just unpacked and crashed. The 24 hour day had finally caught up with me.

Today started with an 8.20 meeting at the Commons clubhouse with the completion of some employment paperwork followed by a talk from Immigration compliance on the rules and regulations of our visas. We then had a talk from Price Management, the housing management company on the rules and regulations of housing and finally a talk on all the program rules from the International Programs team including all the multitude of reasons you can get terminated.

We then had 25 minutes for lunch where Rosie, Candice and I dashed over to the Premium Outlets to grab some Subway – the first ‘proper’ food I have had since I arrived. We then had to catch a bus to the Vista Way pavilion to check in to housing and get our proper housing ID cards. This works on a series of stations which you work around, completing one piece of paperwork at each station. My tip for the whole process is sit and the front of the bus and get off quick, you will be out and through faster.

The embarrassing button

When I got checked in the girl said “Oh, you have been here before” and presented me with a button (badge for you brits) with Disney Internships and Programs Alumni which she told me to wear. Embarrassing or what? This resulted in a conversation withevery other station about where I had worked and when.

Once we were done at Vista Way we took another bus to the Casting building near Downtown Disney. Here we went through another series of stations dealing with paperwork and finally a Disney Look check. It was a fairly painless experience, just a lot of waiting in lines.

Then it was back to The Commons and I think the plan at the moment is for a proper WalMart trip at about 5 and then who knows!

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