Flights

Now, the news has sunk in properly i was looking at different options for booking flights. The price entirely depends on the time of the year and you have very little choice in which date Disney give you! But there is some things you can try and do to reduce the costs as long as you consider some very important factors!

As soon as you get a date and have got over the initial mad excitement you need to look at starting to research flight options. Now as I said previously you’ve got very little choice over the date you get given (unless your availability is very narrow). So read some blogs and hopefully you’ll find someone who had a similar time of the year to yourself (I found Jen – See my links page to a link to her blog) and this may give you a suitable target to aim at. I gave myself a target of £500 after reading Jen’s blog.

Now on all the information that yummy will send you and on their website you’ll find plenty of recommendations to go visit Yummy Travel its a branch of STA travel which caters for finding cheap prices for under 26’s. Although some good bargains can be found I wouldn’t recommend just booking with them for ease they don’t offer all the operators in their searches. With very little effort you can find a bargain!

If you didn’t already know there are two airports in Orlando: Orlando International and Sanford. Both have their Advantages and Disadvantages. Orlando International is the more central airport where as Sanford is a little further out from Orlando but this is countered by the length of time you will spend going through customs. Orlando International is a busier airport in general where as Sanford is quieter so you’re likely to spend less time in a customs queue at Sanford than you are at Orlando International. Also as a rule of thumb operators tend to offer cheaper flights into Sanford as well but then you have that longer journey to Disney housing afterwards. So you’ve got two possibilities here, A flight into Orlando international, a longer wait in customs but less travel time to housing. OR A flight to Sanford, less time in customs but a slightly longer journey to housing. A third option is flying from Dublin (or finding a connecting flight that does) because they have an United States Border Pre-Clearance which saves you the time of going through customs in America because you’ve already done it in Ireland.

So I would recommend starting by using a flight comparison website like Skyscanner. It gives you the fantastic option to set very wide search parameters to save you the most money. Primarily I would start by putting Any United Kingdom airport to Any Orlando Airport. When you hit search it will come up with a list of all the UK airports listed in order cheapest to most expensive. You may have your mind set on flying from a specific airport but if you could make substantial savings (We’re talking £200-300 difference sometimes here!) then it might be worth considering travelling to that UK airport and either staying overnight or travelling up on the day depending on what time your flight is. Then when you click on a specific airport it will come up with the prices for all the different operators. Now you can set up price alerts so that skyscanner will send you emails when the cheapest flight price changes (up or down) these are useful for spotting trends.

Now our date was at the beginning of April which of course unfortunately is the beginning of peak time with Easter being so close we weren’t likely to get some amazing bargains (Some of the short notice people were able to get flights for around £200) I’d spotted a Thomas Cook flight for £400 with £39 for pick your seat, luggage and in flight meals. But when reading through the ‘to do’ list that yummy sent us it says to only book our flight when we’ve got our visa but through facebook you begin to realise that the feb/march arrival dates have booked theirs so I emailed Yummy a couple of questions. They said they recommend booking a flexible flight but with our dates being as close as they are its very unlikely that our dates will change.

The other flights around the £400-500 bracket are all indirect with the next direct flight being a virgin flight £839 (arriving at 5:45pm) The other cheap ones are all indirect flights with 1 or 2 stops. But the arrival times are all really late or even the next day which would be unsuitable. I asked Yummy about this and we are allowed to arrive the day before but it means you have to find your own accommodation. (therefore incurring extra costs) And even then the cheapest flight on the monday is an indirect for £433 (before luggage,meal and picking your seat fees etc) arriving at 8:55pm. Taking into consideration how long its going to take to get through immigration and get our luggage then get to our hotel, it could turn out to be a very long night.

So I was discussing this with the girls that i’ve applied with and in the space of a couple of days the flight went up £20. I decided to go for the Thomas Cook flight and get it booked soon before the price increased any more. I’ve flown with them before to orlando and it was good in terms of food and in-flight entertainment etc. It departs at 10:25am which isnt ridiculously early and would get us in at 2:35pm directly with no messing around changing planes or anything. Also my friend over there has offered to pick us up from the airport which was lovely of him! Now if you’re not lucky enough to have a lovely friend whos willing to come pick you up from the airport you need to book a transfer or grab a cab from the airport.

Our flight ended up costing £459 which was a direct flight from manchester to orlando international and this includes picking our seats (so the three of us can all sit next to each other – we’ve got one nervous flyer) 20kg hold luggage, 5kg hand luggage and in flight meals. Which seems like a pretty good plan.

And finally to end this epic essay on some exciting news! I asked Yummy if there was anymore people on our arrival date or if we might be joined by some people from this most recent intake (who are waiting to hear after their f2fs) and there 3 others who are coming out with us! Yummy isn’t allowed to give me their details because of data protection stuff but shes going to pass on my email address to them and ask them to get in touch! Should be exciting!!

So just about sinking in…

So i’ve been grinning like the cheshire cat the last few days! Don’t think its quite sunk in…

Cheshire Cat Grin

So when I eventually calmed down enough I came to realise that everything had been worth it!! I was also very excited to find out that I was going out the same date as Annie who I applied with and i came on the Manchester trip with us! Another girl on the opportunity list also got a phone call on the 23rd offering her a place starting in January. Although i wouldn’t have said no to the January date, I’m glad that I got the april date as it gives me more time to save up and its closer to the others who all came to manchester which means i’ll spend more time with them!

CRB Form

So when you’re successful you’ll soon receive an email asking for you to pay your CRB fees through Paypal to Yummy Jobs. (£60) Then when the form arrives through the post its as simple as just filling it in, getting copies of the relevant paperwork (Passport, driving license, birth certificate) then posting it back to Yummy Jobs for processing.

The only thing I can definitely advise here is to read through the form carefully and think about what you’re putting in each box before you put pen to paper! Because its annoying if you make a mistake and you may have to get a new form sent out! But hopefully everything will go well and you’ll be one step closer to Disney!!

Fantastic news!

So yesterday was my birthday, i had a nice time at work then we headed off for a surprise meal (which got ruined by someone at work!) which was a lovely evening and some of my lovely friends treated me to my tea which was fantastic. It was a lovely day where i was spoilt rotten by my friends and it really helped me get my mind off the wait.

So the next day on the monday me and my friend mel decided to go through to harrogate so she could go look at windscreen wipers and car radios that would connect with her phone. Eventually we’d decided on a stereo but there was no one available to fit it in that store so we rang another store to see if they had a slot and luckily they did so we began the journey there. Now i’d been silly and had no breakfast so i was getting peckish and decided to pop into subway to grab a sandwich to eat on the way.

Now i’m sure everyone is familiar with how subway works, you order your bread and whichever meat or cheese you want on it then they toast it. Well i was talking rubbish with my friend whilst waiting and then before i knew it my phone began to ring and i looked at the screen and saw Yummy Jobs calling. For some reason at first i was far more excited telling Mel yummy jobs were ringing me and then i realised i should answer the flipping thing!

So i answered very excitedly and it was Louise asking me how I was? How my weekend had been? What i had been up to? When i mentioned my birthday she went to asking me about it, what id been doing and what i had got? At this point i was answering all these questions but in my head thinking “Whats with all this small talk?? Just get on with it and let me know why you’re ringing! My head is hoping that shes calling to offer me a date but maybe she isnt!”

Now whilst this is happening on the phone and im pacing round subway answering these questions excitedly blabbering on. The poor woman behind the subway counter is asking which vegetables i want on my sandwich!

Then Louise finally said “Well i might have a late birthday present for you today. Im delighted to inform you that disney would like to offer you a position working in Food and Beverage starting on 9th April 2014. Would you like to accept this position” This prompted me to literally bounce around ALL of subway saying yes yes yes thank you thats fantastic! She then let me know she’d email me all the details and i should read that carefully and reply to it.

I was over the bleeding moon! SO made all the phonecalls to family and friends then posted it all over facebook. I was walking on a cloud and smiling like a Cheshire Cat!! I dont think the news has quite sunk in properly yet…

A bittersweet farewell

So it was Sarahs leaving party last night and she had a disney themed night out. I was dressed as tinkerbell and had a fantastic night but it was a very difficult end. It was very noisy in the club so as she was going home I went outside to say a proper goodbye (i’d said all the important stuff earlier when we hadnt been drinking! Lol) but it got emotional and we both got a bit teary but i promised her that i would see her in no time whether that would be if i got a date or i would go out on holiday and see her.

When she left i composed myself then tried to go back in the club but the bouncer curtly said “No readmissions after 2am” so instead i was left sat outside waiting for my friends to rejoin me coz none of those inside were answering their phones!

So its been 5 months since i was put on this list and my patience if wearing thin! When you go for ages without hearing anything you get downhearted that you’ll never hear! I dont know how ive managed to wait this long!!

An update to the waiting…

So after not hearing much from Yummy for a while, and no one getting a date. Our whole opportunity group of people who were still waiting on a date were getting a bit anxious when we received the following email:

So at least this might mean that something might be happening soon! Fingers flipping crossed eh!

Other opportunities – HRC

So theres mainly food and beverage and merchandise positions available for the UK CRP program but every now and again theres vacancies for the HRC (Historically Research Centre) which is an operating partner of the UK Pavillion (its not owned by disney – the site is privately rented) Normally because there isnt many vacancies they bunch them in with the normal applications but strangely today they’ve advertised the positions seperately on their facebook page. One of the girls on our list is seriously considering applying for it and i wish her all the best!

Theres only 7 of us left on our list now and that seems positive! Hopefully some of us will hear soon! Its strange when you dont hear for a while! We need some more exciting news to keep us positive!

Such mixed up emotions

So as ive mentioned previously i’ve known Sarah for 4 years and we’ve applied together twice and been able to support each other every step of the way. However I knew it was going to come to this moment sooner or later because it was very unlikely that we’d be offered the same date as we both had slightly different preferences (her first choice was merch mine is F&B.)

So after coming down from a high brought about by our Manchester trip I was back to work on the 26th. We both work in the operations department of a theme park, Sarah operates the rides and im an operations team leader so i can operate rides but im also at the end of a radio just in case anyone needs me for anything. So we were at work and I heard a message across the radio asking if anybody knew Sarah’s location. At this moment i could see her across the fairground from me so i radio’ed back and was told to bring her up to the main office because her mum had been trying to get in touch with her. I pretty much ran across the fairground grabbed her and we excitedly headed up to the main office.
Her mum let her know that Yummy Jobs had rung her house phone trying to get hold of her. So we all got really excited in the main office and i looked up the number for Sarah. Whilst she was doing this she kept saying “Maybe he’s ringing me to let me know that they dont need me anymore!” I told her to stop talking stupid and they’d be offering her a date! When she got through on the phone we only had one side of Sarah’s conversation but it soon became apparent that it was excellent news and she was excitedly chatting away to James. At this point i nipped into my friends office up in the same office and said mostly in jest ‘Im over the bleeding moon for her but wheres my flipping phonecall?!’ He laughed and i went back into the main office to see Sarah. When she came off the phone and told me she’d been offered a date starting the 3rd September i gave her the biggest hug!
We headed back to our operations office so she could use my phone to ring her boyfriend and let people know what was going on! When we got there it was all exciting but then somebody made a stupid comment about Sarah being better than me and did that mean i wasnt getting a job. Now any other time i would know this person was just making a stupid sniping remark and i would have answered with ‘ACTUALLY NO YOU STUPID PERSON – Theres more than one job available and i could get a phonecall any time!’ But my emotions were running high and i had to get out of the office, so i went and hid in the back of our birds of prey centre where i was chatting to some of the animals and then when some of the birds of prey staff spotted me i told them what was going on and they were so caring and lovely! they really made me feel better!

As I said, my emotions were high to begin with but when i thought things through i realised this position was perfectly suited to Sarah. It was merchandise which was her first choice. Ideally 5.5 weeks would have been very short notice for me and it would be tight to fund it and also it was only a 9/10 month offer as she was replacing somebody who had left under whatever circumstances. Although i know for sure I wouldnt have said no to the offer if James had called me. But ideally I would want a F&B position, with a bit more notice and the full year length!

But am I over the moon for her and can’t wait to visit her even if i’m not successful!

Manchester Invasion

When you’re chatting to people through this application process you really get to know them and you realise how well you get along with people. So we decided to try and organise a meet-up after we’d all had such a fun time meeting each other at the pre-screen and f2f interviews.Now this is a very difficult task to organise as no date will be good for everyone. So we set up a poll and took the initiative and went for the one which was suitable for the majority of us. We decided Manchester on the location as its relatively central to where our group were OR it had excellent transport links like the airport, train and coach station so it meant anyone could get there.
So I went researching possible hotel options and found that hotels for 10 were working out expensive and because we’d need multiple rooms it might become unsociable when later on at night we’d have to go off to our own rooms. So i found a set of apartments which the penthouse apartment slept 8 and worked out ridiculously good value. It cost us each just over £40 for two nights staying in a penthouse apartment.

So a couple of days before sadly Sarah had to cancel because she couldn’t really afford to come which is fair enough which meant our numbers were down to 9 but the weird thing would be that i would be the only one of the 9 who didn’t have a date. Everyone would obviously be really excited talking about their dates and i was worried that i’d feel left out but I needn’t of worried as everyone was fantastic.

I travelled across by bus and train and arrived at manchester around lunchtime and met up with some people in the station and sat drinking cocktails some of the others whilst we waited for everyone else to arrive. Before too long we realised we would have to move on otherwise we’d be bankrupt before everyone else got there! So we moved to Wetherspoons for cheap cocktail pitchers and when everyone finally got together we headed towards our hotel and we found a gorgeous penthouse apartment which had a lovely view of manchester.

We freshened up, dumped our stuff and headed out for some food at Hard Rock Cafe. We had some gorgeous food and more cocktails then decided to grab some snacks and drinks and head back to apartment for a nice chilled out night in. We made cocktails (some more visually appealing than others! haha) and sat and watched Tangled. We all were singing along and started playing drinking games and by the time the credits were rolling we decided to get ready quick and head into manchester centre for an impromptu night out! Sadly Rebecca wasn’t feeling too well so our second apartment (a two person on the floor below) was ideal because it meant we wouldn’t disturb her when we came back in. We had such a good night out especially as it wasn’t planned!

The next morning we had a chilled out lie-in and then sadly Rebecca decided to go home because she still wasn’t feeling well. So the rest of us had a lovely day in manchester shopping and chilling out. We then grabbed some food to cook back at the apartment and line our stomachs for round two that night! We weren’t sure what we wanted to do/where to go but after chatting to the receptionist at the hotel we headed to a bar which had offers on cheap cocktails then we moved onto a place called 5th Avenue and it was just what we needed! Cheap drink, cheesy music and plenty of space to dance! So much crazy stuff happened including carrying on the party back at our apartment after the club had closed. The security for the hotel came up and told us he didn’t mind us partying but to keep it in the living room so it wouldn’t bother other residents. He also shifted our check out time an our later to give us an extra hour sleeping which was lovely! haha. I have never had such a crazy fun mental night out and i genuinely cant believe I got on so well with these guys. When friends would ask who i was going to manchester with and i said a group of people I applied for a job against they would give me confused looks as it should be competitive but it isnnt. And even though this break made me want this opportunity even more so that i can spend more time with this fantastic bunch of people. If i don’t get offered a date at least i’ve been blessed meeting these people and i’ll go out to see them in florida on holiday! haha

A little bit scary…

Wow, on July 15th there’s was a big shake up. So as ive said previously there was our opportunity list waiting for dates but there was also applicants from the previous round of applications who were also waiting.

Today it would have been nearly a year since they first applied and the two that were remaining on the list received a very short curt email:

“Greetings from the Yummy Jobs Team!
We would like to thank you for your interest in Disney’s Cultural Representative Program.
We have received news from Disney regarding your application. Unfortunately, they will no longer be considering you for a position on this program. Thank you for being very patient with your application and I am sorry that I could not bring good news to you.
Warmest Regards”

If I had been waiting that long, that email it would genuinely break my heart. I know in one respect it is positive news for us because thats two less people who are competing for the jobs with us but on the other hand but i cant imagine the state i’ll be in if god forbid I get a similar email 6 months down the line. Its crazy because you cant do anything to improve your chances at this stage it is simply just a waiting game!

I’d emailed James at yummy about getting my passport renewed because it expires May 2014 so it would need updating if i was to get a date. And I was pretty direct with asking when we’d hear. For the first time I received a reply that had some information in. He said that labour were currently discussing with disney about their requirements and we should hear by the end of August.

Now today Yummy posted on their facebook that applications for the next round of CRP applications open on the 1st August. Thats scary that within no time we could find ourselves in the same position as those poor two that got the rubbish email above.

We’re giving the opportunity to withdraw ourselves from the wait list and reapply with this round of applications but theres no guarantee that we will even get past the first round as we’ll just be considered on an equal footing with the new applicants. Everybody on our list decided to stay on our list and wait it out. Luckily one of the girls that got the email above has decided to reapply next round so i really hope she gets through and is offered a position after all that waiting.