Dan@Disney

It has been generally quiet on the Disney front for the last few weeks but there have been a few moments of excitement. The end of August brought the last few dates to be allocated in the current block and we got 3 more people (that I know about) for March 20th, Lesley, Sarah and Sian. I have been a bit slow blogging about this, Lesley and Sarah got dates in Mid-Augyst but at least I am mentioning it now. Sian, who is going to be working at HRC, only found out last week so I am kind of on time for that one.

Unfortunately the end of August also brought a bit of bad news for those still waiting for dates. At the start of the not-a-waitlist period on June 15th when the first batch of dates were given out we were told that we would hear whether we got a date or got properly waitlisted by the end of August. There are still about 10 or so people in this position and they have now been told that there is no guarantee they will get a date although they will be considered up until new application open in January next year where they would be free to re-apply. I have to say I am quietly confident for them as in previous years the vast majority, if not the all of the waitlisted candidates got dates but I do feel for them as I know how horrible waiting was for even the short period of time I had to do it. Don’t know if I could have managed until the end of August let alone the end of the year. Hang in there guys.

The reason all of these new dates this is even more exciting than simply realising that lots of fun people are coming to Florida is that last night the girls booked their flights and managed to get on the same flight as me and they even payed £100 less thanks to a Virgin Atlantic Sale – got to admit I am a little gutted about that one.

I had long discussions with both of the girls last night about making the tickets flexible. STA travel are a bit confusing when they explain it. They have what they call a multiflex pass which lets you pay a set amount upfront to get a number of free date changes, Kristen from yummy jobs mentioned that this might be a good idea to Sarah and she and Lesley went for it. When you read the terms and conditions of the STA tickets (at least in our case) it says that you are permitted to make changes to the date for £85, considering the flexipass is £49 I decided it was worth the risk to not pay now and if I have to change it will cost me £35 more. To be fair I didn’t actually look at the flexipass when I bought my ticket as nobody had mentioned it existed but I think I made the right choice.

Whatever the case we are all booked on the same flight and hopefully once the girls get their flights confirmed we can all book seats together. Hopefully Sian will manage to get on the same flight as well and we can all travel together. Its all getting very exciting now as we are coming up to the 6 month countdown. The blog posts may be a bit few and far between in the coming weeks as I am starting to run out of things to talk about, once the Visa process and getting ready to leave begin I will be back to my normal blogging in earnest.

Outside the CRP, I am very jealous that Alice and Kevin (of ICP 2009 fame) are both, separately, heading to WDW this month. It is now over 2 years since I was last there so I have made them both promise to take lots of pictures and say hi to the boss for me. They both agreed and since this now public information, posted on the internet they had better keep to it… Just sayin’

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I have to make a bit of a confession. When you finish your program you are meant to return your Disney ID to your manager so that it can be returned to security. In 2009 I didn’t, although to be fair my managers never asked. This has not really been a problem for the last 2 years but I realised this week that I would have trouble getting a new ID and have to pay a replacement fee if I kept hold of it.

I decided the best course of action was to return the ID now, so that in March I don’t have any problems. I thought this would be relatively easy but it turns out that it is quite difficult to find an address, for obvious reasons Disney are not too keen to publish the postal addresses of their critical infrastructure. I realised my only course of action was to ring Access Control (the department responsible for IDs) to find out where I should send it. I went through all of my old program guides to see if a number was listed, again I found problems. There was a number listed but it was only the internal tie-line phone number and I could not dial that from a non-Disney phone. This was looking more even more difficult.

I decided the only option was to phone the WDW switchboard and see if they can put me through. I would like to take this opportunity to point out how amazing the switchboard operators are, they can put you through to absolutely anywhere and anyone on property but they do like to check you are actually a cast member first before connecting you to some of the more sensitive numbers. But by far the best thing about the switchboard is that after the connect you they always wish you a magical day which when calling from gloomy, raining London is enough to brighten anyone’s day.

Long story short I got through to access control and got an address to send my ID to. A quick visit to the post office and £7 (!) of postage later and my ID is flying back to the mouse and it is now less than 7 months until I get a new one. I am sure there are other alumni in the same position, I don’t want to post the address since it is not public information but if you need it for the same reason get in touch via the contact page and I can send it to you.

Almost finished my dissertation now and I finish my degree in less than 3 weeks which means it is coming up to 6 months until I leave – starting to get excited now!

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net