Getting Started!

I knew I was going to Disney back in October but that didn't change the fact that I waited until the morning I left to finish packing :). My dad and I packed the car up and began the long drive down south! The trip went by pretty quickly with the help of Rebecca Black and her hit song Friday, which was played several times along the way (mostly in South Carolina). I think it might be my dad's new favorite song now...

Before leaving for the program, my friend Stacey and I had talked to a bunch of people via Facebook about living together. Disney has you live with whoever you are standing with on the check-in line, so we wanted to try and find some roommates before we got there. We were able to find six other great girls: Annie, Ashley, Kacey, Nicolette, Shelby and Tara! We were told that check-in would begin at 9am, but the apartments are first-come-first-serve and we learned that those who had earlier check-in dates than us were beginning to line up for check-in as early as 11pm the night before! We didn't want to risk the chance of not getting to live together, so we made the slightly crazy decision to get in line at 1am. We were a little nervous about not getting any sleep, but we figured it was worth it! I, of course, forgot to turn my alarm off and was woken up by a text saying that all of them were on line... whoops. I was able to get up and get ready pretty quickly (partially because I didn't want to spend any more time than I had to in the sketchy hotel my dad had us staying in) and headed towards Vista Way to meet my new roommates! Vista Way is one of four apartment complexes that DCPers can live in. The other three are The Commons, Patterson Court and Chatham Square (which is where we hoped to live).

Around 5:30am, we were greeted by a Disney employee named Vanessa. Vanessa gave us some nametags and sat and talked with us about the program. She was extremely helpful and very friendly. By 7am, check-in had begun. Because we had gotten there so early, we were first on line and therefore got to go through the check-in process before everyone else. Another Disney employee told us that most of the people would be placed in Vista Way which bummed us out a little bit since Vista doesn't have 4-bedroom apartments. We were about to discuss what we would do if we were broken up, but the employee stopped us which hinted at the fact that we, being first in line, wouldn't have to worry. When we got to the housing part of the check-in, everyone there knew us as "the eight girls who showed up at 1am." We were all excited when they said they had a 4-bedroom at Chatham for us! After we were done at Vista, we took a bus over to the Casting building at Downtown Disney where we were finger-printed and completed even more paperwork. We finally finished check-in around 11am and headed over to our apartment!

The apartment we live in is HUGE! The apartment itself has a few issues, but the complex as a whole is beautiful. We have four bedrooms, and each pair of bedrooms shares a connecting full bathroom. There is also a large living/dining area, kitchen, 1/2 bath, and tons of storage space. It's a bit bare but we are all excited to make it our home!