one year

A year ago today, we didn't have Rocco. What did we ever do without him?

A year ago today, I wasn't engaged to my best friend. I definitely knew I wanted to be though :)

A year ago today, I wasn't an alumni of the Disney College Program. Little did I know I had some amazing people to meet and some wonderful memories to make.

A year ago today, I was eating Dominos and playing Mario Party. Thanks Facebook.

xoxo,

Natasha

dream a dream

"Laughter is timeless. Imagination has no age. And dreams are forever."

-Walt Disney

bittersweet

I have been absent from this blog for quite some time now. You may be thinking...

"Gosh, Natasha really should update more" (ahem, Lisa)

or

"Yay! I haven't been getting a million updates from that weirdo blog in my google reader"

orrrrrrr

maybe you didn't even notice!

I'm not going to apologize for my lack of blogging nor am I going to promise more updates in the near future. (doesn't mean I'm done forever people!!) There are only 20 short days left of my college program and I intend to live every single one of them to the fullest.

20 days.

480 hours.

28,800 minutes.

1,728,000 seconds.

It's very bittersweet.

xoxo,

Natasha

kitchen sink

Last Wednesday was fun.

My morning started off at Downtown Disney with Annie and Samantha (two lovely girls from CRT). We had a delicious lunch at Earl of Sandwich and then went to see the Justin Bieber movie! (Don't judge....it was AMAZING)

After the movie we had plans to meet up with Abby and Brent (two more lovelies from CRT) and Lisa (honorary CRT lovely <3)

For those of you who don't know, the Kitchen Sink is a massively delicious ice cream creation that you definitely need to share. Eight scoops of ice cream, every topping possible, and an entire can of whipped cream is served to you in a kitchen sink (how fitting). The six of us were able to finish it but were SO full afterwards!!!

Unfortunately, we missed Fantasmic because we were too busy stuffing our faces with ice cream but that is ok because Lisa and I are going to go watch it tomorrow night!!

xoxo,

Natasha

typical day in the castle

A few days ago, my wonderful roommate Lisa asked me to do a guest post on her blog about a typical work day for me while here on the college program. As I have mentioned before, we are both in the Full Service Food & Beverage role but our work experiences have been very different so far. Here, I will share what a typical day is like (for me) working in Cinderella's castle and then I will ask if I can borrow Lisa's post too :)

My restaurant is located inside the Magic Kingdom... arguably the most popular park here at the Walt Disney World Resort. Because I don't have a car here, I am one of the (un)lucky that get to ride the "A" bus to work. This bus is always full and, until another bus was added to the schedule, was a nightmare to get on. To ensure that I get to work on time I need to get on the bus approximately an hour and a half before the start of my shift.

As a seater at my location, there are two main shifts that I could work: breakfast/lunch or dinner. I almost always get scheduled dinners, but some CP's at my location get almost all breakfast/lunch shifts so it can vary. My shifts usually start at 2:45PM and end anywhere between 10:15PM and 12:15AM.

After getting off the CP bus, I usually run inside the costuming building to pick up my costume, then catch another bus that takes me backstage. When I am changed into my costume, I go clock in. One of the things that was hard to get used to was that when working the dinner shift, you are assigned to go on your lunch break right away...I have now learned to love that and enjoy the time spent with my coworkers before we all go start in our positions :)

When my break is over, I clock back in and get an assignment. As a seater there are quite a few assignments that I can receive: seater, seater/setter, updater, set-ups, greeter, greeter assist, or podium (I won't go into detail about each of these because I think this post is already getting pretty long!)

In between rounds of seating, I will go down into the break room and fold napkins. In addition to the side work you are assigned at the end of the night (cleaning high chairs/boosters, lost and found, etc.) there needs to be 22 bins of napkins folded and ready for the next day. After that number is reached, you can either clock out or stay and do task work until your scheduled out time.

After clocking out, I go change out of my costume and say a little prayer that I wont have to wait too long for the "A" bus...and that I will get an actual seat :)

Oh! And because I hate doing posts with no pictures....here is a picture of me in front of my work location with a yummy treat :D hahahaha

xoxo,

Natasha

nom nom nom

About two weeks ago my mom flew out for a couple of days and we took advantage of an awesome cast-only promotion going on with resorts/the Disney Dining Plan. For 2 days we had the regular dining plan which consists of 1 Quick Service meal (QS), 1 Table Service meal (TS), and 1 snack per person, per day. Then, for another 2 days we tried out the Quick Service dining plan which consists of 2 QS meals and 1 snack per day plus a refillable resort mug for each person :)

I was really excited for this trip because: (a) I missed my mom and (b) I had never done the dining plan before and had been wanting to try it forever!

For the first part of our stay we were at the All Star Music resort (since our favorite, Pop Century, was unavailable) and the second half of the stay we were at Pop Century...yayyy!

I'm not going to go into crazy detail about all the delicious food we ate but the highlights were definitely Cape May and Boma! We already knew that we loved Boma but Cape May was a new experience for both of us and we were very pleased!

Here are some pictures from her trip....

Love and miss you madre!

xoxo,

Natasha

still alive

I promise I am still alive. Life has been crazy lately and I haven't had much time to update. I will work on getting some posts up this week but in the meantime here is a preview of what is to come:

• New Friends
• Madre visits and we have our first experience with the DDP :)
• ESPN the Weekend
• Trip Home
• Disney Magic

xoxo,

Natasha

tale as old as time

Disclaimer: This really isn't a tale as old as time.

This past week has been a lot of fun here in DisneyWorld. Since I wrote my last post, Lisa and I worked a PAC shift together (sort of), I picked up my first QSFB shift at Pinocchios Village Hause, Lisa had family in town, and I made some new friends!

The shift at Pinocchios was a lot of fun...I definitely wouldn't want to be in quick service permanently but I enjoyed my experiences as a food/drink filler :) The best part about picking up that shift was that I got to wear a new, CUTE costume! The pictures I took of myself are really awkward soooooo don't judge them k?

After class on Monday I went to Magic Kingdom with Lisa, her sister Jessie, and Katie. It was such a fun day!!! I am so glad that Lisa, Katie and I have so much fun together and it was great to meet Jessie and get to hang out with her too - she is so much fun! (Jessie, if you read this -- COME BACK!!!!)

In other news, I really miss everybody at home. Especially these 2...

xoxo,

Natasha

PS... if ANYBODY knows where you can find a kids XL grey sweatshirt like the one I am wearing in the picture above, LET ME KNOW! Jessie wanted one and they looked everrrryyywwwhhhheeerrreeee.

voluntEAR

Since my first day here I have really been looking forward to being able to volunteer at the Give Kids the World Village, a retreat area for families of children with life threatening illnesses. For DCP participants, there are scheduled volunteer opportunities every Sunday and Wednesday nights. I usually work nights but last Wednesday I worked in the morning so I was finally able to go!

Lisa and I signed up together and were both really excited to go! We met at the Commons and after a little bit of a mix up (the housing team thought we wanted to sign up for the next Wednesday) we were in the van and on our way in our snazzy new t-shirts.

Like our Mickey "gang" sign?!

Wednesday nights at the Village are "Kid's Night Out", a night where parents and children can get a break from each other and the children are paired with mentors to play and eat all night :) At first, there were more volunteers than there were children so Lisa and I helped set up dinner in the Gingerbread House. On our way back to meet with the rest of the group, we found another family who had children interested in joining us so we were paired with some children and officially had buddies!!

The night was amazing. The services that they provide at Give Kids the World are wonderful and I was so happy to be a part of that team for the night. Unfortunately, for the next two weeks I work at night on Sundays and Wednesdays but I am planning on going through their orientation program so that I can volunteer on a more regular basis on days that I have off.

If being here on the program has taught me anything so far it is that my career needs to be in a field that allows me to provide experiences and services to families that will make a difference in their lives and create long-lasting memories that they will cherish.

xoxo,

Natasha

park day

So obviously a big perk of working at Walt Disney World is getting into the parks for free and since I have been here I have definitely been taking advantage of it :)

I didn't realize until now that I haven't really blogged about my park excursions. So I'm going to change that now!! Today I went to Magic Kingdom with Lisa and Katie. It is very rare that so many of us are home at the same time so it was great to hang out together!!

The three of us are on a mission to do every attraction, show, etc while we are down here so we did some of the things that we haven't crossed off our list yet liiiikeeeeee Hall of Presidents, Swiss Family Robinson Tree House, and Snow White's Scary Adventure.

We also got to go inside the castle and then took a picture with Peter Pan!

After we were done at the Magic Kingdom we went to the Polynesian for dole whips and they were OUT! nooooo bueno.

Unfortunately, our adventure had to come to an end....Lisa went to work and Katie and I went home.

It was a fun night in the apartment too :)

xoxo,

Natasha

be my valentine

Happy Valentine's Day!

I started the morning off by going to my first Advanced Studies in Hospitality Management class. It was pretty interesting. I'm really glad that my roommate Lisa is in that class with me :)

There was a big box of flowers on our doorstep when we got home and I was very pleased to see that they were for me! The bouquet is very pretty and has some of my favorite flowers in it (thanks Alex!!)

aren't they pretty? :)

After class we just lounged in the apartment, had some lunch and watched Toy Story. I checked the HUB to see if there were any PAC shifts to pick up tonight and there were! So I picked one of them up and rode to work with Lisa this afternoon.

The PAC shift was awesome! I seriously love the costume. Plus, what could be better than getting paid to stand in front of the castle and watch the electrical parade, the new castle show AND wishes?! That's right, nothing :)

Doing the "Disney point"...not my new favorite pose :-P

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day.

xoxo,

Natasha

alex's visit

Alex flew to Florida to hang out with me last week! We had such a good time and it was great to be reunited!! I had to work on 2 of the days -- but only in the morning so it wasn't too bad.

On his first full day we hit up Animal Kingdom and Epcot. The highlights of the day were the safari (DUH), naked mole rats, German beer, and Ellen's Energy Adventure! Ok, maybe not the last one...

When I got off of work on Saturday we enjoyed each other's company, had some dinner, and watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from a hammock on the beach of the Polynesian :)

I worked the morning of Superbowl Sunday but was back at the hotel in time for the game! We decided to stay in our room and watch the game so we could be comfy and we had a nice tv :) For dinner we ordered some Domino's and Alex got some beer from the pool bar. There was a raffle at the bar during halftime so we went downstairs and Alex won a shirt!

Monday it was supposed to rain all day....we never really saw too much of that but we did see some ominous clouds in the distance! We had a few errands to do (like returning my over-priced computer case to Best Buy) so we took the city bus and got them done :) That night we had dinner reservations at 'Ohana. The meal was SO good and we had a wonderful time. At one point we were invited up with a few other couples who were celebrating anniversaries and got to slow dance to an Elvis song :D Our server was awesome and at the end of the meal brought us an engagement cupcake!

Tuesday was Alex's last full day...we spent it in Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom. We had a lot of fun at both of the parks even though it was pretty cold!

Unfortunately, our vacation had to come to a close on Wednesday and Alex flew home. It was so great to have a visitor (especially Alex!! :P) and I can't wait for the next one to come!!! (hint, hint!)

xoxo,

Natasha

gross

I didn't bring a car with me to Florida. Sometimes taking the bus can be a pain but most of the time I really don't mind it (and my roomies with cars have been more than generous with giving me rides if I need them :D) but tonight was definitely a night that I hope to never re-live!

There were TONS of CM's at westclock waiting to go home and I wasn't sure if I was going to make it on the first bus buuutttt the driver was pretty cool and made sure people made space and we all made it on the bus! We were packed like sardines (which I don't really mind...as long as I'm on the bus its good!). Here comes the awful part: the guy next to me had the worst BO so I turned around and the girl that I was facing was eating a warm tuna sandwich with soggy, mushy bread. (and she was making a DISGUSTING smacking noise with it)I wanted to vomit right then and there. I still feel sick and I've been off the bus for almost an hour.

Gross.

xoxo,

Natasha

woohoo

my blue main entrance pass came today!!!

(I know it's backwards)

YAY!

xoxo,

Natasha

magic

I'm telling you, this place is magical.

I have literally had tears in my eyes at some point during EVERY one of my shifts in the castle so far (happy tears of course!). Cinderella's Royal Table is full of magical moments - we recognize a prince and/or princess of the day at the start of every meal, we welcome "royal families" into the castle to share a meal with some of their favorite and most-loved Disney princesses, we give the prince and princesses swords and magic wands to use for our special wishing ceremony, we make memories.

When working inside the castle, I love to watch the families that come in together...their excitement is contagious and just knowing how special this meal is for them fills me with so much joy. Tonight, there were quite a few daddy-daughter tables and at one point one father was dancing with his princess in-between courses. We had a table of older ladies there to celebrate their dear friend's 80th birthday. Also, tonight I got to see my first in-castle proposal....it was so sweet!

I don't think I could have gotten any luckier with my location. I can honestly say that I love going into work every day and I definitely know now more than ever that I need to be in the business of making memories for people in some capacity.

xoxo,

Natasha

PAC

Yesterday I was able to pick up a PAC (Parade Audience Control) shift from the Extra Hours Hotline! I knew before I came down here that I wanted to pick up one of these shifts before my program was done -- and I was able to do it in the first two weeks!

The shift was SO much fun! First of all, the costume is adorable. I like my costume at Cinderella's Royal Table BUT the PAC costume was much more flattering :) There was a pep-talk meeting before the shift started and then we were all assigned our locations. For the electrical parade I was stationed outside of Tony's and Exposition Hall and just directed traffic with my blue "light saber"

After the electrical parade passed, I was moved up to main street and directed traffic during the new castle show and Wishes. I was in the perfect spot to see the shows and the best part was I was getting paid to watch them!!! :)

This was my view while "working" last night:

(I took this picture from google)

First PAC shift was a success! Can't wait to pick up more :)

xoxo,

Natasha

park orientation

A day or two after Traditions (all of the days seem to blend together here) I had my park orientation at the Magic Kingdom! The orientation that you participate in depends on your work location (park, resort, etc). My class was called "Once Upon A Time Is Now" and I LOVED it :D

Again, I don't want to ruin any surprises for anybody so I will just say that it was a lot of fun, I learned a lot, and I am more excited than ever to be working at the Magic Kingdom!

xoxo,

Natasha

traditions

All Disney employees, from the CP participants to the big executives, have to participate in the Traditions class. At check-in they gave us all an assigned time for Traditions. I was originally assigned the afternoon class with my roommate Lisa but we both received calls the night before from the Casting department informing us that we had been moved to the earlier one! We were both pretty excited about this because you get your ID that lets you into the parks at Traditions and we wanted to break them in that night!

When I was doing my research on the DCP, I always wanted to know what happened at Traditions but found a recurring theme among the blogs that I read -- they always kept it a secret! And guess what? I'm doing the same thing!!! I would really hate to ruin the surprises for any other future Disney employees!!!!! But I will tell you that Lisa and I met some nice people from BYU-Idaho....here is the picture to prove it (haha):

After all the excitement I had lunch with my mommy and then we decided to head to the Polynesian (Lisa's workplace!!!!) to get a dole whip and sit on the beach. Of course we took pictures...

Unfortunately, our fun had to come to an end that afternoon and my mom had to fly home :( We both shed a few tears as she dropped me off at my apartment.

That night, the ladies of Chatham 23102 (me and the roomies haha) decided to use our shiny-new cast ID's to get into the park! We started off at Disney's Hollywood Studios but found out when we got there that there was only an hour until park closing. It was a very successful hour though! We rode Tower of Terror, Rockin Roller Coaster AND Toy Story Mania :)

Epcot was our next stop...we grabbed some dinner and margaritas in Mexico and worked our way around the World Showcase. We finished off the night watching Illuminations and then went home!

xoxo,

Natasha

check in day

Check-in day for the DCP was crazy busy! I met my roomies outside of Vista around 7:45AM and soon after that the line was opened and we began the whole process. First you are given a nametag and your program guide and then you proceed into the line for housing stuff. We got very lucky and were given the complex and room type that we wanted! Some other people in line near us were not so lucky :/

There are a few other stations that you stop at and then you are on the bus to casting! I was SO excited to be going into the casting building. It was my first time ever and knowing that I was going in there having already been offered a position with the company made it that much more exciting :)

Once inside, you are given your location (I'm at Cinderella's Royal Table!!!!) and then you visit a million more stations. It feels like you are there FOREVER. At the end they have a PhotoPass photographer there to take your picture, so look cute ;)

I had my mom pick me up at Casting so I didn't have to ride the bus back to Vista and we went to my apartment. After doing a little bit of moving in, my mom and I went to have some lunch and later on that afternoon the roomies and I headed to the housing meeting.

Here is a picture of me and my lovely roommates on check-in day:

For dinner that night, my mom and I had reservations at 'Ohana. OMG SOOOOOO GOOOODDDDD! We had been there before for breakfast but dinner there is a different beast entirely. We ate until we were about to burst and then headed back to our hotel for the night.

Here are some pictures from dinner:

xoxo,

Natasha

moving

Obviously to participate in the Disney College Program I had to move from California to Florida.I flew here with my mom (left the car at home with Trey) on January 8th.

Packing to leave was no fun...it's hard to fit 4 months worth of stuff into 4 bags! I also had a hard time accepting that I wasn't going to be living in the apartment with my three favorite boys (Rocco counts!) for an extended period of time!

The night before I left, we went to Arcadia to have dinner at the dumpling house. It was SOO good - like always :)

Saturday morning was full of some tearful goodbyes, excitement, and nerves. The flight to Minneapolis was good. We had a row to ourselves which is always nice. We had a short layover in Minneapolis and then it was on to Orlando!

All of my bags arrived when they were supposed to (yay!) and after retrieving them, we got our rental car and headed to the Pop Century hotel.

Check-in took forever but we finally got checked into the 60's section (the building with Mogli and Baloo) so we dropped off our bags and headed to Downtown Disney for dinner! We ate at Earl of Sandwich and were happy to see that we were there on the last day of the holiday sandwich!

That night I met up with Kristina and Alek and we just hung out for a little while.