As the Season Comes to a Close

I am back again! Almost a full month later... oops! But lets be honest if you are still reading this thing at this point you know that I am doing good to post once a month. I am both a lazy and busy bee. Interesting combination.

Well I do have some updates since my last post. After I posted about trying to find someplace to live Kat had to back out on us living together. I won't lie, that sucked. It put my life into a tail spin trying to figure out what to do. I started looking for other people and went on Donald's Deals (the Disney classifieds) for people trying to fill rooms. I spent probably 2-3 weeks trying to find someone and totally freaking out. I ended up having to go and sign up for CP housing so I could keep my extension a viable plan. That was the day before my family got in town (another amazing story that will be included in this post) and that night I literally cried myself to sleep. I was so stressed and staying in CP housing was the absolute last thing I wanted to do. But God smiled on me and my luck broke and I managed to find someone. Over the last few days I have been in contact with a girl I found on Donald's deals who was looking for a roommate. Come to find out that I know her and talked to her for months before my first CP. She was a part of my first online D-fam. We went and looked at apartments yesterday and have put in an application for a place. I am so excited, happy, and relieved to say that I won't have to live in CP housing for the next 5 months and in fact I won't be a CP anymore.

With housing now in place I need to start busting my butt to find a big girl job. As I guessed I didn't get either of the Alumni PIs I was still in the running for. It sucked to hear that but like I said, I expected it. I can't be sure why I didn't get one. I wish I knew, but I don't. I can only assume my interview wasn't very good since I didn't get a call back from any of the PIs. Who knows but it is time to move on. As much as I love Disney, it may just be that I don't end up working here in a big girl job. That isn't really what I want but maybe it is the path I need to take. So I am searching in the Orlando area and really all over for a job that I can use my degree and my brain rather than just my body.

In other news... MY FAMILY CAME TO VISIT ME! Unlike a lot of people on the CP I haven't really had anyone come visit me. I had my aunt and her family come the very very beginning of my program (like the 2nd week I was here). Other than that I have had my high school soccer coach come who I saw for a few hours one afternoon and that is about it. So the fact that my mom, her bf, and my sister got to come was a wonderful thing. My sister was a last min addition too (literally 2 days before they got here). They got to see me and Mickey in DEP while they were here too so that was really fun. They brought me christmas gifts which I now have sitting in my room waiting to be opened. :)

Life is pretty good for me right now. Finding some place to live has taken a huge stress out of my life and I am so much more optimistic right now. I know that once I get back into the grind of looking for jobs I will get beaten down again. Being a recent graduate in an economy like this is just plain horrible. I can only imagine how it is going to shape my generation because I have no doubt that it will. (yes I am a nerd and things like that interest me)

To end this update I will leave you with a few pictures.

With the End, Comes the Stress

Lets not talk about the fact that it has almost been a month since I updated.

Its been a busy month. The first part of the month steamed past, but somewhere around the middle of the month time decided to slllooow down. That slow down period coincided with the week that I got the official notice that I was no longer in consideration for my top two (and really best chance) PIs. I also realized about that time that I was going to be very hard pressed to afford to live in any of the apartments that I had looked at up until that point. To say it was a depressing time was a bit of an understatement. Coming to the realization I have no idea what I am going to do with my life come January is scary.

Honestly I am pretty much still at that point. Not so much the depressed point but the I have no idea what to do with my life. I have been applying for jobs both within Disney and outside. Unfortunately there isn't much out there for a college grad with little practical experience. My mom keeps telling me I'm far to harsh on myself and I will find something, but its hard to see that. I know from past experience that I am very hard on myself, but that doesn't change the fact that I think I am at a huge disadvantage for not having actual PR/Marketing experience. Moral of this story, do actual internships in school, not just Disney internships. Gain experience while you can still afford to not get paid for it.

I am still in consideration for 2 alumni only internships, project support for DTD and MK. I am still in interview stage for both, although I have only ever had the initial screening interview. That isn't a bad thing and I haven't heard of anyone else having more than that for those two. I am just not very confident that I will get them. I had a point where I had no hope and basically already believed I was out of running for everything. I now have a little bit of hope but I am not sure that is a good thing. Final deadline for PIs is the first week of December but I know of people who have heard back after that, especially for alumni only.

Within the Entertainment department I have been getting myself ready to switch from a CP to something else. I did accept an CP extension in my current role. That is my super back up and I hope I don't have to take it. I went to casting today and got myself on the lists for part time and full time. In the attempt to try and make myself the most versatile (and hopefully attractive for casting) performer I can be, I have been trying to make as many new character friends as possible. I have also been trying to talk to various people about what I need to do to get utilized more. That hasn't been going very well but I can only keep trying.

Life isn't so bad, its just very uncertain. I need to find a place to live and ideally another roommate to make a perfect trifecta of Kat, Me, and Someone else. I think if I could just find some place to live I would feel a lot better. Or really have just one thing fall into place for me. As if I didn't already know it, this has taught me that I am not very good with uncertainty. I am a planner and an organizer and uncertainty in my personal life makes for a stressed and frazzeled Marion.

To end this on a positive note I want to add that on the 3rd and 5th I will be playing with some of my character friends in the Main Street Electrical Parade. I can't really say how excited I am. Its good to know that I haven't been forgotten and even more exciting to think that I will finally get to roll down Main Street. So if you happen to be in the Magic Kingdom on the 3rd keep an eye out for a wooden boy and the big cheese on the 5th. :)

-M

Event # 3: WDW 40th Anniversery

I know, I know. A month after the event I am finally getting around to blogging about it.

Sorry.

Anyways the 40th anniversary was on October 1st and was amazing. I had the morning off but worked at 4:00 so I spent the morning at Magic Kingdom and then went down into the tunnels to start my work day . Because I worked that evening I parked in cast parking and went through the tunnels to get to the park. Since that isn't exactly proper I tried to be sneaky and slow so that I didn't pop out into the parks before there were any guests. I think I got into the park about 9:30 or so (I really have no idea lol) when guests were just beginning to come in. All of my roommates came as well but we arrived separately.

I picked up the awesome 40th anniversary maps and got myself a commemorative button. I then found myself a seat for the character cavalcade that I knew was coming. At one point I ended up running down the street to find my roomies and we went back to the spot I was previously in only to find that two old ladies that had been standing next to me and stole my spot. Slightly frustrating considering I had been gone for literally a minute. It turned out alright though because I just crowded in on them and got my space back. After the parade went past we followed it down to the castle hub where Meg Crofton and some other guy whose name escapes me made little speeches. The Dapper Dans then lead a sing along of When You Wish Upon A Star. That was very cool and moving to say the least.

 Yes that is indeed a shot from between one of those old ladies legs. It was about the only way I could see around her. Super annoying?... yes. 

They had just kissed. Too cute. 

Why yes. Flynn is Smoldering. And I did catch it on film. 

That was pretty much all for the 40th events. They were giving out free cupcakes but I didn't want to stand in the ridiculously long line so I missed out on that. There was a lot of special merch things and artist signings going on in the parks but yet again, I wasn't really interested. Even though I didn't necessarily partake in any of the 40th specific events I did get to enjoy several things I have never experienced at MK. I saw the trolly show and saw an adorable little girl dressed as a Trolly girl. super cute.

I saw some of the Main Street characters including the Mayor, Fire Chief, and some of the Suffragettes.  I also saw this band that I have no idea what they are called. They are not the Dapper Dans or any other group I have heard of. They were very cool though and one of them had worked at WDW since park open.

The man in the yellow shirt is the 40 year cast member. 

I forgot to mention that I dressed up a bit. Its not really a 70s dress but it is vintage (late 50s) and adorable. It was a very fun day and I am glad I got to be a part of it. I spent some time with my roommates and some friends. After we watched Celebrate A Dream Come True, it was time for me to go to work. I worked at Chef Mickey's that night so unlike many people I have both a parks 40th anniversary button as well as a resort 40th anniversary button.  

The marathon event weekend was exhausting but was definitely worth it. I didn't end up getting to go to another Halloween party which was sad but there is always next year. The Halloween parties just ended on Nov. 1st and the Christmas parties will begin in just a few days on the 8th. I will of course be going to at least one and will post pictures and such. 

Till next time,

-M

Disney Event #2: Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!

Event # 2 was the MNSSHP on 9/23. I had purchased the ticket to go early in the month and had planned to go with my roommates Kryssy and Kat. However by the week of the party I found out that they were no longer going and I was left with no one to go with. OH NO! It turned out all right though because I found another friend who had the same thing happen to her and we ended up going together.

I elected to wear my Pirate costume which my grandmother made me about 5 years ago. It is an epic costume if I do say so myself and I have worn it many many times on International Talk Like A Pirate Day, to Renaissance Festivals, and of course during the Halloween season. My friend Morgan dressed up like Alice. 

Since we are both performers, we love characters and decided to make the priority of our night to meet characters. We started of with Mickey and Minnie. There was a long line of people waiting to meet them in their Halloween outfits and hardly anyone in the regular queue. Since I am all knowledgable and knew when Mickey would be out in his fancy costumes and how much time the line takes, we jumped in the regular queue and were some of the first people to see them in their Halloween outfits. Basically we were sneaky sneaky and jumped all those people. BAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!

We of course made a stop to see Alice and Mad Hatter for Morgan. At this point we were joined by one of Morgan's friends whose name I of course can't remember. 

I make wonderful faces yes?

Soon after our visit with those Wonderland folk we went to watch the Villans Mix and Mingle. May I just say that the Villans show is THE BEST THING EVER! It needs to be a priority in anyones MNSSHP evening. After the show the Villans that are in the show do a short meet and greet. Short as in 15 mins. So be smart and get there early and stand in the general area of your fav villain. We watched the show and then jumped in line for Maleficent. 

We made stops to see various other characters not often seen in the parks such as Terk and Jane as well as Timon. 

We hit up the second parade since that one tends to be a little less crowded and got a good seat right at the beginning of Main Street (which is actually the end of the parade route). I took a good number of pictures but also made it a priority to enjoy myself. Many of the wonderful pirates came to visit me including the great Barbossa. Peter Pan came and asked me to a sword fight, but I couldn't get my sword out and then he had to run. :) It really is an amazing parade. 

After the parade we scurried up the street to hit up the Hub were the Villans roam. While we were waiting in line for Gaston I got a text from one of my amazing CP #1 training group family, Ryan. Turns out he was sitting across from us during the parade and recognized my voice. :) He and his wife have moved back to Orlando which is an awesome surprise. I hope to be able to hang out with both them and the other guy from my training group Patrick (and his fiance Toni). Yes that means I will be like a 5th wheel but who cares! I love them all. :)

We finished out the night dancing with some of our favorite toys at the Diamond Horseshoe. We saw Woody, Bullseye, and my favorite Cowgirl Jessie. It was quite fun and a great way to end the night. 

 All in all Event #2 was super fun. I haven't bought tickets for another party yet and I'm not sure if I will. I do have one more costume to sport but maybe I won't wear it this year. I don't know of anyone else going to another party but maybe I can convince someone to go again.

-M

Disney Event #1: Trick or Meet Up

I have decided to make a post about each of the Disney events I went to this past week. This is post #1 (obviously) about the Disney Parks Blog Trick or Meet Up.

I mentioned in the first post that I "won" a ticket. What I really meant by this is that there were a limited number of people that could attend this event and that I managed to RSVP early enough to get myself a spot on the list. Each person who RSVPed could bring one guest and was encouraged to dress up in costume.  Im not sure exactly how many people went but it was definitely more than 100.

The meet up basically revolved around the Haunted Mansion and Halloween. We met up at 9pm at Blizzard Beach and were bussed over to the Magic Kingdom from there. While we waited for everyone to check in and the busses to get there a DJ was there playing some music and facilitating a Disney trivia contest. I recognized him as the DJ that was at my first CP completion ceremony aka graduation ironically doing the same thing. I think his name is DJ Miles.

Anyway, I think we managed to get to MK at about 10pm although I'm really not sure about that. We were bussed to what is called Splash Gate which is also where the Parade Control building is and where all of the parade floats are kept. They had some of the parade floats lit up in the barn so we got to see some of those as we drove past. After we were let into the park, we were walked to the Hall of Presidents. Right outside the entrance to the Hall of Presidents, Gene the Disney Parks Blog photographer was taking pictures of guests in costume. Guess who got a picture taken of them... ME! and my twin who was my guest.

As you can tell I wore my Daisy Duck costume although stupid me forgot my bracelet. Whoops. Once we got inside and were all seated Imagineer, Jason Surrell, came in and talked to us about the Haunted Mansion and answered questions from the crowd. It was very interesting to say the least. I'm not a Disney parks/imaginer/rides expert by any means so there is a lot of things I didn't know that probably a lot of the crowd did. One of the cool things I learned was that the Haunted Mansion was completed in April of 1971 and basically they just locked the door of the ride for 6 months until the park opened in October.

After he was finished they let us go free to tour the new Haunted Mansion queue with an Imagineer, ride the Haunted Mansion, take pictures with some characters, or trick or treat. I of course did all of the above with a focus on characters. As soon as we walked out of the Hall of Presidents we saw Daisy and Donald Duck. Since I was in my Daisy outfit I dragged my Twin to the line and made him wait with me. Daisy of course thought I was the bees knees and Donald got down on one knee for me. I guess he was momentarily confused and thought I was Daisy. Twin then proposed to Daisy and it went down hill from there. I love fun interactions with characters. :)

 

I also met Dr. Facilier which was super awesome. And saw some ghostly singers serenade the guests.

Sitting outside of the Haunted Mansion was 2 wonderfully funny ghosts, Renata and Carlotta DuBois. They are totally hilarious and can be found outside the Haunted Mansion during the Halloween parties, or so I have heard.

The night was finished off with a run of the Headless Horeseman.

It was a great night and I had a ton of fun. I hope that if there are future meet ups at WDW I will be able to go. I don't know if I have ever mentioned it but a dream job for me would be to work for the Disney Parks blog. Hopefully one day I can make it to that dream.

In PI news... I have my interview for the Entertainment Management Internship (MI) tonight at 8. I finished applying for the rest of my Comm internships last night. I have a grand total of 9 internships I have applied for. 1 MI, 6 communication related PIs (all but one social media related), and 2 Alumni only PIs. I really hope I will get one of them. Wish me good luck on my interview tonight!

-M

3 Days of Disney Events!

My marathon 3 days of Disney events is well under way. Last night was the first Disney Parks Blog Trick  or Meet Up and I managed to get a "ticket". Tonight I will be attending my first Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and tomorrow is the 40th Anniversary of Walt Disney World. I will post more about all of these including photos and such. But for now this is just going to be a teaser.

In other news... I just got an email telling me to schedule my phone screening for the Entertainment Management PI. This is great but I also need to apply for all the communication PIs I want. Its an exciting and busy time for me!

:)

-M

Professional Internships and Other News...

Updates Updates...

As I have mentioned before I am in the process of applying for Professional Internships. I have many that I am applying for but the one I have been focusing on recently is the Entertainment Management Internship. I met with an entertainment manager at Magic Kingdom that I work with somewhat frequently and she agreed to help me out. She look at my resume and made some suggestions on how I could improve it. She has also looked into setting me up some meet and greets although I am not sure how that will pan out. I am very very grateful for her help but I do wish I had meet with her earlier. The deadline to apply for the MI (management internship) is Sept 30th aka a week away. So I am going to apply and do all that without as much of the benefit of her help as I could have had if maybe I had met with her earlier.

So that is a big suggestion I have. If you are graduating or just planning on doing a PI immediately after your CP, be there for as long as possible before those PIs would start. Start talking and being visible to leadership asap. And then talk to them about your interests in PIs as soon as you can and long before the apps go up. For people who are interested in the Entertainment department, just realize that you are going to have a much harder time making contacts with managers, especially if you are a performer. Your hardly ever in the same location multiple days in a row and if you are that doesn't mean you will have the same manger every time. You probably will often not even see a manager while you are at work. They can be hard to find and even harder to get a chance to talk to. Although I can say its not impossible to get their help, because they are willing, it just isn't as a performer as it is if you are in say attractions.

Anyways I guess that is all for this post. There are lots of cool event coming up at Disney including the 40th anniversary of the Magic Kingdom and the Food and Wine Festival. I am going to make an effort to go to both and so hopefully you will get some pictures from those events.

-M

Hallloooweeeeeen!

Have I mentioned that Halloween is my all time favorite holiday? I think I did in my last post. But thats ok , its the truth so it can be repeated.

I LOVE HALLOWEEEEENN! It is really the best holiday ever. To me, it is the perfect fall holiday.

Anyways. I have pictures of the Boo To You parade to post! It was absolutely amazing. Lots and lots of fun. Unfortunately it was a bit crazy trying to get situated for the parade. If you ever doubt that Cast Members can be just as stupid as guests, please do not. The waiting, crowding, and pushing that happened before the Cast Preview is a great example that Cast Members are not above guests. They act just as idiotic given the opportunity.

I ended up going with my roommate Kryssy and friend Amanda. They had bought Woody and Jessie shirts earlier in the day so we all kinda dressed up. Them in Toy Story and me in my Daisy shirt. We ended up standing with some of the D-Fam (read almost all of the D-Fam) which was totally random, unplanned, and awesome.

Look at how cute we are!

Now for pictures of the parade! I took a good amount but I am just going to post some of the best.

I will be going to an acutal MNSSHP on the September 30th and October 6th. I also plan on going one more time in October. I have 3 costumes (Daisy Duck, Pirate, and Tinkerbell) to wear so I have to go to at least 3 parties. :) I will post pictures of the parties and me in my costume when I attend.

Thats all for now my loves!

-M