Friday November 14, 2014

Registration for Disney Classes!!

One of the coolest things that I was interested in about the Disney College Program was the LEARNING aspect of the program.  Most of my friends and family are confused about what exactly the program is, and while I wanted to dedicate an entire page on my blog to all the aspects of the program and what it is about, I haven't had time to do that yet, so in the briefest of terms, I will explain the learning aspect of the program right now. 

 

Learning refers to the opportunity that Disney College Program participants have as far as taking classes through Disney University while you are in Walt Disney World or Disneyland for your program.   They offer many outstanding courses that are one-of-a-kind classes that you can only take at Disney.  Most people ask if I am able to earn college credit while I am doing the program, and while I can, my major does not really relate to any of the classes offered and I am already caught up and am about to finish all of my pre-requites courses for nursing in a few more weeks, so I will not be taking any of the credited courses offered.  Disney offers three types of courses - Collegiate Courses, the Disney Explorational Series, and the Professional Development Series.  The Collegiate Courses include classes like Corporate Analysis and Marketing You which are beneficial towards those who are interested in building skills in communication, marketing, leadership, guest services, etc.  These classes offer college credit for those interested.  I'm not too familiar with the Professional Development Series, except that they offer Engineering, Entertainment Show Production, and Security.

 

The classes that I was interested in taking from the beginning were those from the Disney Exploration Series, which in my opinion, seemed like fun and enjoyable classes to take.  These are free classes that really just focus on you exploring more about they Disney Company and the reasons how Disney creates such a magical place for guests to visit.  I really wanted to take Exploring Disney Heritage which is a class devoted to learning about the history of Disney.  It's a really popular course, so I was afraid I wouldn't get in, so I chose another class as a back-up which was called Exploring Guest Service and it seemed very similar to the Disney Heritage class so I was hopeful for either one!!

 

Registration was supposed to start at midnight EST on Monday November 10th, but the afternoon of that day, the registration page changed on the Onboarding website and said that classes would now be available starting at 10:00 AM EST on Monday November 10th.  I go to school in Mississippi so I'm located in the Central Time Zone, meaning that the classes would become available to me at 9:00 AM that day and of course I would have classes from 9:00 - 12:50 PM.  I was so upset because I knew how popular Exploring Disney Heritage was and I knew I probably wouldn't get in it.  I was going to try to register on my phone in class, but I never keep my phone out in class while I'm taking notes so it made me really nervous, but I didn't want to wait to register.  The whole time I was in class it kept saying my username and password were wrong.  I kept trying to use the same username and password that I use to login my Dashboard, but I didn't know it was different.  I was stressing out about class and registering and then I had ten minutes in between my next class, so I tried again.  I had been messaging some of my other friends and eventually asked them if I was using the wrong information to login and they told me how to do it after wasting an hour trying.  Eventually, I was able to login and the process took a little longer than I thought.  I was trying to rush before class started and the way you register was like in a survey form, so it was a little different than what I was expecting.  Sadly, Exploring Disney Heritage was full, so I requested to be placed on the waitlist for it, but I was able to get into Exploring Guest Services on Mondays at 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM.  I'm really really excited about it and just happy that I am able to take a class at Disney World and to experience what a Disney class is like.  I feel like this class will help me so much in providing guests with outstanding guest service in my location and I'm really excited about it!!

 

 

 

I just wanted to update y'all on that exciting news and I will continue blogging whenever I think of other things to write about.  HAHA!

 



 

~ Krista Lauren Girod

 

 

Thursday October 23, 2014

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Today was one of the greatest days of my life!  I never thought I would see a purple "Congratulations" email with my name on it!!  I was officially ACCEPTED into the Disney College Program for the Spring Advantage 2015 semester for the role of MERCHANDISE and I couldn't be any happier.  I'm so so excited!!!  Words can't even describe how happy I am!!!  I have so much to share with all of you so I hope that you will continue reading and enjoy my acceptance story!!

 

First of all, I am so sorry that I am behind with posting blogs on this page!  I meant to write about my status update about a month ago, but I this semester is one of my hardest yet because I'm trying to finish all my pre-requisite classes before next spring so I won't be behind for nursing school next fall.  So again, I apologize and I hope that I can find more time when I am down in Disney to keep you all updated! 

 

As you know, I applied for the Disney College Program on Thursday August 21st and had my Phone Interview on Friday August 29th.  I waited four weeks until Wednesday September 24th until I received a PENDING email.  That day was pretty crazy!!  So many people on the Facebook page seemed to be receiving pending emails, but I didn't receive mine until 4:02 PM.  I was kind of upset about it, but not devastated because I still thought that there could be a chance, but I wasn't for sure.  I was really confident with my phone interview and I thought I may have been pended because I expressed interest in seventeen of the twenty roles they offered.  Everyone seemed to have their own theories, but I kept thinking about how this season has been so different with applications coming out early and the majority of people getting out of submission after a month so I just stayed really hopeful and optimistic, except towards mid-October I started to get a little sad the more I thought about the what-ifs of being no longer in consideration, but I tried my hardest to focus on the positive aspects of my application process so far.  I received a second pending email exactly three weeks after the first on Wednesday October 15th at 4:22 PM.  I wasn't surprised because everyone said that they usually send reminders.  Honestly, I was happy that they had looked over my application and interview and that I was still in consideration.  Little did I know that eight days later I would be CELEBRATING some very exciting news!

 

PENDING EMAIL FROM SEPTEMBER 24TH AT 4:02 PM

 

 

SECOND PENDING EMAIL FROM OCTOBER 15TH AT 4:22 PM

 

 

DASHBOARD AFTER PENDING EMAILS



I had been home for Fall Break October 16th through October 19th and I started to get very anxious about waiting.  I got back to school and the next Monday was October 20th which meant that it was officially late October.  They had said that applications would come out in late August and when they did come out it was August 20th.  I was a mix of emotions the beginning of that week because I was so hopeful, yet I still kept thinking about the chance of not getting in and having to wait up until the very last possible date to hear back anything which was Monday November 17th.  I noticed a few acceptances that Monday and none on Tuesday, but Wednesday was the very first day that a ton of penders began to get accepted and I FREAKED OUT!  Sadly, I was not a part of the wave that day, but it made me really happy and even more hopeful that the rest of that week I could possibly find out something. 

On Thursday morning on October 23rd, I woke up at 7:00 AM to get ready for class.  I continued my usual morning routine of checking my dashboard and email, but nothing appeared from Disney every time I refreshed.  I left to go to my Anatomy class and usually as soon as I get out of class, I had been refreshing my emails, but something made me wait that day until I got back to my dorm to check.  First, I had a bunch of Facebook notifications and I started to see people saying they were accepted for Spring Advantage 2015 Merchandise and I was like OH MY GOSH that's the role I really want and the season I applied for.  I refreshed my email, and this time there it was... an email from wdw.disney.recruiting.... CONGRATULATIONS! I opened the email and I couldn't believe I was finally seeing my name on the email I had been waiting for nearly two months for!!  I screamed and jumped up and down and my roommate knew immediately what was going on!  It was the best moment I'll always remember.  Both my mom and dad were at work, but I called my mom first to tell her the news and she couldn't believe it!  I called my dad next and he said from the minute I said hello he had a feeling I was about to tell him I got accepted into the Disney College Program!!!  My parents have wanted this as much as I have since the day I told them I really wanted to apply back in December of 2013 and I couldn't be more blessed for having their support throughout this whole process.  My brother was at school, so I had to wait to tell him after my afternoon classes.  After I called my mom and dad, I shared all my details on social media except I never even checked to see what my role was.  I clicked the link in my acceptance email and it pulled up a link for a .pdf file and as it downloaded, I was so nervous but excited to see and guess what?!?  I got my top choice - MERCHANDISE for Spring Advantage 2015!!  I couldn't be more happier!

ACCEPTANCE EMAIL

 



 



After checking my role, I accepted my offer and waited for a second email in order to pay my program fees.  I got the email about an hour later, but I waited until my parents got home so that we could read over all the information together.  The fees cost a total of $354.00 which included $150.00 for the housing events, $200.00 for the first few weeks of housing rent, and another $4.00 as a processing fee.  Once I paid my fees, I was excited to be able to choose my arrival and departure dates.  I was hoping to arrive some time in January so that I could stay even longer down in Disney, but the only two arrival dates that were open for my to choose from were February 2nd and February 9th so I chose February 2nd because it was the earliest date I was able to choose.  All Spring Advantage 2015 departure dates were August 7th, so my official program dates are February 2nd - August 7th and I am so so excited!!!  I will be down in Disney for just about six months which is amazing!!  I can't wait till February!  I already started a countdown on my iPhone which will help me track how many days are left until I arrive!

 

MY WELCOME EMAIL

 



 

I have so much more to write about and I can't wait to keep you all informed about my progress with the Disney College Program!!  I am so happy that I am being able to have this opportunity and I can't wait to start planning everything and finding potential roommates!!  I will keep you all updated with everything as more exciting things start happening, but for now, I hope you all have a magical day and I can't wait to meet all my fellow College Programers next semester!!

 

~ Krista Lauren Girod