Happy birthday to me!

I was in Disney World this past weekend for my birthday with one of my best friends, Mckayla, and my boyfriend, Adam. We had the most amazing time and it was one of my favorite trips for sure.

We left super early Friday morning and went straight to Magic Kingdom. We went on Jungle Cruise for the first time in forever, because our past couple trips it had been closed for refurb, so that was awesome. We missed it so much when it was closed. We had a really exciting train on Thunder Mountain (lots of fellow screamers) and as always, we requested back row, making it the perfect ride. Since Mckayla was with us I got to ride teacups, which I hadn't been on in a year, so that was awesome! All in all it was a great morning, followed by lunch at Moe's and checking into our hotel. We stayed offsite, which clearly wasn't my preference, but it was actually a really nice hotel.

We went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party that night and I hadn't been in years, but it was so much fun! The first thing we did was get seats for the Villains Mix n Mingle. The show is fantastic and we ended up meeting Maleficent and Frollo. Frollo is actually one of my favorite villains, so I was super excited we were able to meet him. There was barely anyone in his line and we were the last ones, so he actually took quite a bit of time with us and we all ended up taking selfies with him, since he was the only one without a photopass photographer. We were having a really hard time with the lighting in his spot, so he even walked across the meet and greet area to go to a place with better lighting for us. Pretty sweet for such a terrible villain, yeah? 

After meeting him, we got a pretty perfect spot for the Boo To You parade, which I had never seen before. It's now officially my favorite Disney parade- so many fantastic floats and street performers. I'm so happy we made time to sit and watch it. The highlights for me were: Christopher Robin dancing down the street and an entire float devoted to Winnie the Pooh characters, the Jolly Roger float, the graveyard guy and his dog (from Haunted Mansion), and the hyenas from the Lion King. It was so great.

Then we saw the second performance of Villains Mix n Mingle, solely so we could get in line for a picture with the Evil Queen, considering Adam and I were dressed as the Prince & Snow White. Our meet & greet with her was fantastic. I ran up to her and greeted her with a cheerful "Hi Stepmom!" She gave me the most irritated, disgusted look and maintained that expression when I asked if I could take a selfie with her.

Then we made our way down Main Street and found the perfect spot for Celebrate the Magic/Hallowishes. I was sort of disappointed by Hallowishes, because I've heard from so many people that it's the best fireworks show at Disney and after watching it I couldn't disagree more. I'm very spoiled by normal Wishes, so I guess nothing else will ever compare to it for me. It was still a pretty awesome fireworks show, it just didn't give me goosebumps or anything.

We started hitting up the trick-or-treat trails after that. We all three had a full bag of candy by the time we left, so that was fantastic. Oh, we also saw Sulley jamming out at the Monsters, Inc. dance party in Tomorrowland. That was super cute. :)

We saw all seven dwarfs while walking through Fantasyland, but the line to meet them was closed at that point. I guess we'll just have to meet them next year. But, we did manage to meet all four princesses and their princes that were in Fairytale Hall that evening: Cinderella & Charming, Aurora & Phillip, Rapunzel & Flynn, and Snow & Prince. <3 I had never met a prince before, so that was undoubtedly one of the best parts of the trip for me. The three of us had such a lengthy conversation with Rapunzel and Flynn that Snow and Prince actually walked over to sort of hurry us along, haha. But, it was a really great time. Flynn showed us what was inside his satchel, which included a mini frying pan (just in case), Rapunzel's tiara, and most importantly, a Snickers bar that he had picked up on the floor after a small child dropped it. Hahaha!

  

The next morning we woke up to head to Animal Kingdom and it started drizzling. By the time we made it to Animal Kingdom's parking lot though, it was 65 degrees and POURING. We decided we'd make a run for the trams anyways, but only got about twenty feet from the car before we decided it was much too cold and rainy right then. So, we went to McDonald's and had lunch and waited for it to calm down a bit before heading back. It still drizzled off and on most of the day, but the downpour was over, thankfully. We caught part of Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade from a completely deserted bridge and when Timon walked by I made a heart with my hands and he made one back and it was so cute!

We headed to Hollywood Studios for the evening and went straight to Star Tours! Guess what? I was the rebel spy! Yay! I also saw Will, a cast member friend of mine that I met last year. He was so excited to see me and I got to tell him that I was accepted for dcp so he'll be seeing a lot more of me! The manager for that area was standing there as well, so the three of us started talking to her about how she became a manager and about her college program. She made me even more excited, if possible, to start my program! Oh, and a super nice QSFB cast member at ABC Commissary gave me a chocolate mousse cup (one of my favorite Disney foods) for free for my birthday! 

We got our seats for Fantasmic after that and Adam bought glow with the show ears. They all look so awesome in the crowd! I hope they get more popular over time so that the crowd is more filled with them. Also, the new LED lights on the princess floats look spectacular! 

Magic Kingdom was open until 1AM, so we went there after seeing Fantasmic. We started in Tomorrowland and worked our way around. We worked it out so that I would be on Thunder Mountain (my all time favorite attraction) at exactly midnight, the beginning of my twentieth birthday. The CP who was working the fastpass/standby merge point let us sit in the corner by her until it was the right time to finish the line and board. We sat with her for about twenty minutes and we talked about her experience. She's staying in Vista and she said it was their last choice, but it's really not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. She has five roommates and all but the one in QSFB love the program too. She's even planning on extending. I absolutely adore talking to cast members, especially CPs. She even gave us special "use for any attraction" fastpasses as a birthday gift! Anyways, we ended up going down the first drop at exactly midnight and we were all screaming and Adam and Mckayla were both yelling "Happy birthday!" and it was just one of the most magical moments of my life.

We spent the entire day at Magic Kingdom on Sunday. We rode Thunder Mountain three more times, making the grand total on my birthday five! It was such a great day and I'm so happy that I was able to spend my birthday in my favorite place for a third year in a row, with two of my absolute favorite people. Thank you so much to everyone who made it such a special day/weekend- from Cast members, to all of you who sent birthday wishes, to the two people I spent it with. <3 Now it's only 363 days until I'm 21! And more importantly, only 75 days until DCP Check-in! 

Hello!

Hi everyone! My name is Jessica. I'm a sophomore in college, majoring in communications. I'm so excited to share that I was recently accepted into the Walt Disney World college program for merchandise, spring advantage 2014. I already have a tumblr that I've been posting about my journey on so far, but I wanted a more organized place to talk about all the exciting things that are coming up once I move to Orlando, without my random posts about various fandoms and such mixed in.

I was blessed enough to live 45 minutes away from Disney World until I was ten. On one of my Grandma and my many day trips, we encountered a CP who was working at the Magic of Disney Animation attraction. My Grandma noticed that her name tag said a college instead of a city beneath her name and asked her why. She told us the whole story of her college program experience and how much she loved it. Ever since then I've kept it in mind and dreamed of working at Disney.

I moved to South Florida shortly after that and I've lived here ever since. It's only three hours south of WDW though, so I still visit every few months or so. Disney is my favorite place and I'm happier there than anywhere else. When I'm there I feel like I'm home. Over the past year that I've been eligible to apply, I've talked to every CP I came in contact with about their experience and their overall opinions on the program. With every story I became more and more obsessed with being able to participate. 

My application process was kind of insane. I applied the day applications came out (September 5th). More than anything, I was terrified that I wouldn't make it past the WBI, because I had heard so many horror stories about it being difficult to pass. So, when I saw that I was moving on to the phone interview, I couldn't believe it. My PI was on September 8th at 7:30 PM. I felt so prepared for my interview, but my interviewer rushed me and didn't seem very into our conversation. I was terrified that I blew it, especially once I saw that my interview only lasted 17 minutes! My boyfriend had his interview exactly an hour after mine and his went so wonderfully; I knew he was going to get it. And he did! On September 24th, he received his acceptance email! His role is attractions, which I called from the beginning, even though his top role was custodial. I was so happy for him, because he had doubted himself since day one, but I knew all along how much he deserved it. 

Every day that passed after that was increasingly difficult, because I became even more worried that I wouldn't get in. I cried a lot and was actually really irrational, but I just couldn't help it. Especially when my third week was up and I still hadn't heard anything at all! I emailed Disney around 11pm on my 22nd day of waiting. I got an email back the following morning saying "thank you for notifying us, please keep checking your dash." At work that day, I had a long talk with God. I decided maybe all I needed to do was have legitimate faith that I was going to get accepted and that my email was going to be in my inbox when I got off work. And it was! I found out at the end of my shift in the bathroom of Old Navy, of all places! I ran out of work and jumped in my car to drive to Target, where Adam works, because he wanted to be the first to know. 

I walked to the electronics department and found him, trying to stay as calm as possible so I wouldn't give it away. I asked for his assistance finding the Little Mermaid DVDs, because it's my favorite movie and it had just re-released that day. He pointed to the huge display devoted to my favorite princess. I made him walk over to it with me and said "you know, the really cool thing about this DVD is that I'll probably be selling many just like it in the store I work in as a merchandise cp." And it took him a minute to get what I said and then he hugged me super tight and it was just such a great moment.

So, October 1st, on my 23rd day of waiting, I WAS ACCEPTED. I think it's a pretty cool day to have been accepted, because it was also Magic Kingdom and Epcot's birthday. And not only was I accepted, but I was somehow blessed enough to get one of my top three roles. God is so amazing and I'm so thankful dcp is part of His plan for me. 

Over the past 24 days, I've found it massively difficult to concentrate on school. All I want to do is talk to my roommates & other cp friends and watch vlogs and Disney films. I've never been so distracted from my studies in my life, but I absolutely cannot wait to move. This is all I've ever wanted and in 86 days it's all going to be real.