Moving in, Orientation, Traditions!

I have officially been in Anaheim for around 2 weeks now, and things have been ultra busy! I've been trying to get adjusted and organized, and I think I may finally be hitting that point :) So here's what I've been up to over the last few weeks!

MOVE IN 

Carnegie Plaza!

August 18th was the big day! My mom and I had driven down the night before and were staying at a hotel right across from Disneyland. We had dinner at a restaurant in Downtown Disney that night, and were able to get a view of the fireworks from our table, so it was a great kickoff!

The next morning we headed over bright and early to the apartment complex! I met my first room mate, Jillian in the check-in line. We got our first of many Mickey name tags, and headed up to the complex's courtyard for check-in.

We got a new folder with the castle and clouds to replace our "purple folders", our apartment keys, our parking assignments, our bus passes, and filled out a bit more paperwork. I got to see a green sheet attached to my employment file, and saw "Tomorrowland" written there. I was slightly bummed, since it wasn't Adventureland, but it wasn't ToonTown! :)

Our next few hours were spent meeting our other room mates, Kathy (who unfortunately had to leave the program early due to a conflict with school), Ellen, and Lauren; and dragging box after box up to my fifth floor apartment.

We also had a little housing meeting, and were given a more detailed schedule for the week. After that, it was time for my Mom and I to go play in Disneyland for awhile, then off to bed, as I had Orientation the next morning.

My new home!

ORIENTATION

Orientation took place at Team Disney Anaheim, which I was super excited to get to see the inside of. We took our pictures for our ID cards, then headed in. The Lion King was playing inside the auditorium while we waited to start. We talked about the classes that were being offered to us, and I chose to take "The Leadership Speaker Series" which will feature different VPs as the speaker each week. It seems like it's going to be a fantastic networking opportunity and starts on September 24th.

We also talked about scheduling, and.  requested our preferred days off and hours. I put Monday and Thursday as my preferred days off (which, surprise! I haven't gotten so far). I also put down that I'd be willing to work a 6th day when available (which next week I work 7 days in a row, so I may be changing that) but didn't put down overtime. I figured I could add that when I needed it.

We were also given a pamphlet with info on our Traditions session and training, and I noticed "TL Attractions" written there as well, so it was pretty set as my new home. We finished up by playing Disney Trivia for prizes. I won a cute Disney College Program laundry bag by giving Goofy's original name (Dippy Dawg).

Then it was another night of Disneyland! Mom and I had dinner and a show tickets for World of Color, the new show at California Adventure. We ate the Golden Vine Winery, which was really good, especially the dessert. We had a special section for the show, and it was wonderful! Its shows like that that you can really see and feel Walt's ideas and creativity even today. I know I will be back again and again to see it.

TRADITIONS

Traditions was on Friday. Traditions is sort of Disney's official orientation for new cast members. We had to fully meet the "Disney Look", which meant dressing up in my new "business casual" clothes. We went over a ton of information at Traditions - Disney history, the "four keys", the SERVICE model, and a tour around some of the backstage areas and parts of Disneyland itself.  We got to see some hidden Mickeys and hidden details throughout the park, and also some interesting business secrets (for instance, I now know why every time I'm on Main Street I'm literally dying for a corn dog and ice cream, and desperately want to go inside every store).

After the tour and lunch, we went back in the auditorium and got to see some of the expansion projects currently going on in Disneyland and Disney World. Some of them are pretty amazing, and I hope we will get to see some of the stuff going on in Disneyland first hand soon!

We also met briefly with our on boarding specialists for our various areas. The attractions on boarding specialist was super nice, and filled us in on more of what to expect at training. (black polish-able shoes and socks!)

My favorite part of the day, for sure, was when we finally got our nametags and ID cards. A very special guest made an appearance to present them to us, and I don't think I'll ever forget that feeling!

YAY!

The housing office put on a fun little welcome party for us that night, and we ended up taking a ton of photo booth pictures!

I had the next day off, so I went to Huntington Beach with some friends. On Sunday, my room mates and I went to California Adventure after some cake to see World of Color and ride Tower of Terror for my room mate Ellen's birthday.

And then...it was time to see what attraction I would be working - training!!!