The Land of Opportunity!

One thing that may not be well known about working at Disney is the amazing amount of opportunities the company provides for their employees, especially for college program participants. Over the course of my program, I had the opportunity to sign up for many special events and tours. However, they were usually send via email and they were first come first serve, therefore I cannot not say I experienced all of the events presented. Nonetheless, I have compiled a list of every cool thing I got to experience since while I was a cast member.

1. Meeting Celebrities

While this particular opportunity wasn't just for college program students, it had to be one of the coolest parts of working at Disney. As you know, Walt Disney World is famous for bringing families and friends together for a good time. Therefore it is safe to assume that celebrities like to visit with their families as well.

Over the course of my college program, there were quite a few celebrities that graced Disney World with their presence. Just to name a few celebrities that visited: Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Johnny Depp (I swooned over this one), Celine Dion, and the entire cast of Modern Family and The Middle. While I'm sure there were more celebrities that visited, I cannot remember all of them from the top of my head.

Now you all might be asking, "Did you get to meet any of them?" The answer is a tad complicated. Daisy and I had the chance to meet Celine Dion when she came to visit Pete's Silly Sideshow in Magic Kingdom. I would show you guys pictures but we were not allowed to keep them, unfortunately. However, the entire interaction with her and her family was beyond amazing. She was extra sweet to all the characters (Minnie, Goofy, and Donald were all there as well) and even gave every single character a hug and acted as if they were the only celebrities in the room. Celine's little boy was absolutely precious. Overall, the family was down to Earth and an absolute pleasure to meet. I do wish, though, that I had gotten the chance to meet the family when I was not hanging out with Daisy, or any other character for that matter, because then I could say absolutely yes I meet Celine Dion instead of having to say my friend Daisy did.

2. Special Backstage Tours

One of the coolest and most common opportunities offered to CP's and regular cast members are the backstage tours where you actually get to learn a thing or two about an area you never would have gotten to learn about as a normal guest. By this I mean, tours that are not offered to the general public. Examples of the special tours include:

• Behind the Scenes of Fantasmic and Popular Attractions: While the primary purpose of this tour was to learn about the technology it takes to create Fantasmic and popular attractions like Tower of Terror, you get to stand on the stand on the top of the mountain on the Fant set and look out to the empty stadium as if you were a performer. 
• The Haunted Mansion tour: You get to walk through the ride and get to learn about a lot of the small details and history behind.
• Non-Disney related tours: Sometimes there were field trips scheduled to non-Disney related places like Winter Gardens and Clearwater Beach. At one point, I believe they took a massive amount of CP's too Universal Studios which is a little strange considering that they are Walt Disney World's competition.

3. Commercial and Film Type Opportunities

Twice during my program was there an opportunity to be in some sort of commercial or likewise filming. The first was labeled as Fantasyland Filming, where the people who were selected to participate had the chance to ride one of three rides: Goofy's Barnstormer, Dumbo, and Seven Dwarfs Mine train. Funnily enough, it resulted that the footage taken from that event is to be used for the new Soarin' film. While I did not personally have the chance to participate in that event, many of my friends did and they said it was exhausting since filming took about four hours but it was also a lot of fun.

I did, however, get to participate in the second and I believe last filming type opportunity that was offered during my program. Only 30 people were chosen so I got really to be part of the few participants chosen. The project just so happens to have been a #DisneyKids commercial with the goal to attract more preschool aged children to visit Disney World. The commercial was of a little girl's first time riding Dumbo and YES I can be seen as an extra! :)

Feel free to watch the commercial and feel free to leave a comment down below if you can find me. *Hint: I'm at the very end*

4. Giveaways

There is this place in the Hub, the all access site to a cast member's schedule and additional benefits, that's called Magic Backstage where there were new giveaways posted every once and a while. These giveaways could range from a 4 day 3 night cruise or even a night at the Cinderella Castle (this one I only saw posted once and was a huge hit). I believe I also saw a week long trip to the Aulani Resort in Hawaii being given away at one point.

Disney Housing would hold Welcome Events that were always themed something different every week or every other week. During the housing events, there was always free food (very important), rare characters doing meet and greets, and prizes being given away. One time they gave away foldable lawn chairs that are perfect for people who have a patio attached to their apartment. Most of the time the prizes were things like water bottle, pens, and spray bottles though. Nonetheless, you could not go wrong with attending a Welcome Event because who doesn't like free food and rare characters?

How My Dreams Came True!

In life, everything happens for a reason! This I have learned over the last few years, if not over the course of my entire life. The greatest example I can think of is how I landed the character performer gig. First off, I want to clarify that I did not consciously know that I wanted to work at Disney World as a college program participant let alone as a performer. People always ask me how I became a character performer if it wasn't a dream I already had. The answer, in short, is fate.

During Fall 2013, I was not in a good place in my life. I was living with a very crappy roommate and her obnoxious boyfriend, who in all honesty was the meanest man I have ever met. I won't go into specifics of why he wins that title, but I will say that he is the kind of man that is not only physically abusive but also emotionally abusive which has scarred my roommate for life.  

One day, I found myself on the Disney Careers website and to be honest I cannot for the life of me remember what brought me to the site in first place. I have always been a Disney fan so perhaps I was curious about their job openings, I do not know or remember. The point of the matter is though, I found myself on the College Program website and before I knew it I applied for the program out of no where! I wasn't planning it. I did not know it would change my life forever. It just happened. 

Before I knew it, I got a web-based interview and passed it with flying colors. However, it was phone interview that changed my life forever. See, as I mentioned before, I did not know I wanted to be a character performer. I honestly did not even know it was a possibility. The recruiter I was being interviewed by asked me whether I was planning on going to the audition that week. I was interested, so she promptly told me that it was two days away in the same city I was currently living. It wasn't until later that I found out how lucky I was, because there are only a handful of different cities where the auditions take place and I just so happened to be living in one of them. Not to mention that I was informed about it only a mere two days beforehand, therefore I was not given a sufficient amount of time to panic and decide against going.

The audition process was simple, fun, and nerve wrecking! I went to the Austin, Texas audition (shout out to those who auditioned with me) and it was insane. Over 200 people showed up and yet it was completely organized and under control. The first step was check in and get measured. A quick tip: to be a character performer you must be within a certain height range which breaks down as follows:

mouse height - 55.5 inches to 60.5 inches

munk height - 61 inches to 63.5 inches

Pluto height - 66 inches to 68/9 inches (I'm a little fuzzy on this one).

Goofy height - 71.5 inches to 75.5 inches

The second step was to learn a very simple march across the floor as if you in a parade. It is important to show a big personality in this step. Now, after this step they cut the large majority of people so don't be discouraged if this happens to you. Chances are it wasn't that you did something wrong but that you weren't what they needed at the time. This is especially true if you don't fit in to the height ranges I mentioned above.

The third step, if you were not cut, is to animate a scenario they give you for two 8 counts and then learn a dance routine that progresses in difficulty as you learn it. This was by far my favorite part of the audition process because it was incredibly fun! The song picked for the dance is always very upbeat and catchy so be warned it might be stuck in your head for the next couple weeks. The important thing to remember during this part of the audition is to have fun and show the casting directors your personality and enthusiasm. They are more likely to remember the girl/guy who is having the time of their life and smiling all the time than the person sitting alone in a corner miserable. Also, take the opportunity to befriend as many people as you can during the audition. You never know who will end up working with you in the future, and often times the people you met during the audition become some of your best friends. 

Once you are done, they may or may not ask you to stay back for additional pictures. If they do, you are most likely being considered for a face character role. If they don't call you, that doesn't mean you are not being considered though! The results didn't come until 2 weeks after I auditioned, but I got in and I cannot begin to describe how amazing that feeling was. 

The letter I got informing me I was selected to be a character performer!

In all, I definitely recommend auditioning to be a character performer for Disney World, whether or not it be for the college program or a part-time/full-time position. It was honestly the best experience of my life and I miss it dearly every day I am not there. Being a character performer opened my eyes to the different adventures out there and got me out of my comfort zone for a little while. The memories I made during my program are irreplaceable and I wouldn't change a thing. So, if you're considering giving the Disney College Program and/or being a character performer a chance, I definitely encourage you to do so.

Adventures with Mexico Donald

Donald was by far my best friend on my college program and one of my favorite places to hang out with him was at the Mexico Pavilion in Epcot. Not only did I get to experience some pretty interesting people there with him, I also got to take extra time with the guests there since there was hardly ever a substantial line waiting to meet him. Here now are just a few short stories of the most memorable times I have ever spent with him.

1. First, if you don't know already, there's a challenge by Epcot fans to have at least one drink in every country. While a lot of people would start at the Tequila tasting bar in Mexico, some guests would start in Canada so by the time they got to Mexico they were fairly wasted. Donald got to see some of those people and they were usually a source amusement for him. One time a lady who had been holding an alcohol drink approached, and you are not allowed to be near a character with any form of drink by Disney policy, so Donald politely gestured for her to set it down. However, this particular woman was out of her mind drunk. She thought that he was trying to take the drink for himself and started screaming "YOU CAN'T HAVE MY DRINK! YOU CAN'T HAVE MY DRINK!" while running away from him and her family towards the forbidden backstage area. Her husband and Donald's character attendant ran after her to try and explain that he wasn't trying to take away her drink from her. Eventually she came back to take the picture with Donald and the rest of her family, but I don't think believed them entirely about the drink because when she walked away she called him a "filthy drunk duck."

2. One of the best things you can do to make a character's day is show them how much you love them. Donald is probably the most cocky duck out there so all you really have to do to make his day is show and tell him that you think he's number one (as he writes in ALL of his autographs). One guest took it a bit further than just telling him they love him. Not only was the little girl decked out in Donald Duck clothes (and possibly a hat but I cannot remember exactly what she wore), but she also showed him her Magicband that had her name as Mrs. Duck. It takes a great amount of effort to have your Magicband's name to be labeled as Mrs. Duck so of course Donald was very impressed. So impressed, in fact, that he tried to take the adorable little girl home with him. Too bad he was stopped by his attendant. :(

3. Later on I will go further in depth about the amazing experiences I had with Make a Wish children, but this one story is just a sample of what it was like to meet them. Make a Wish kids always have priority when it comes to meeting characters so they seldom have to wait more than a few minutes to meet the characters. One particular family comes to mind because while not all families were very appreciative of their trip nor respectful of their ill children, this family had the most interesting approach to their clearly visible child. Their little boy, could not be older than 5 years old, was in a wheelchair and had a few tubes sticking out from him. The poor little boy seemed like he was not all the way there judging by his very blank expression. However, that didn't stop his brothers and parents from pushing him towards Donald because he was his favorite. The brothers were very helpful and loving saying "look at him! He's really Donald! He's so soft! Feel him!" while grabbing Donalds hand to try to him to touch him. Donald getting the quoue from the family's love towards the little boy, he grabs the boy's hand and kisses it and the boy smiled!! It was the reaction of his mother (she started crying) that made him tear up and spent a lot of extra time with the little boy and his brother. It was then he learned that the boy had a very large brain tumor and had been fighting the battle for more than a year which left him terminally ill and partially brain dead which is why he had that blank expression on his face. While the boy only had a few more weeks to live, they made a wish to see him smile again, since he hadn't before the surgery that left him expressionless. "What better place to take him than the place where magic is real and miracles happen?" After the family left, Donald had to excuse himself while he tried to compose himself after hearing the little boy's story.

Short and Sweet Introduction

I have created this blog to tell my stories of what it's like to work for the Walt Disney World Entertainment family.

A little bit about myself:
I was accepted to the College Program for Spring 2014 on October 11th, 2014 to Quick Service Food & Beverage. On October 24th, I was offered to switch roles to be a Character Performer! Needless to say, I was ecstatic. Currently, I am back from the program but reflecting on all my funny and random stories I decided to write them down and share will all of you!

The stories will most likely not be chronologically in order, but I promise I will post any answers to questions you may ask.