I AM FREAKING OUT!!
Can I be excused for freaking out?? My check-in date is May 5th, which is still around 20 days or so from now, but since I'll leave Indonesia early, then it is just two weeks away before I left. Crazy how time flies! I feel like I haven't done anything significant to prepare for my departure.
Sensing this will happen, a best friend made this ground breaking innovation and bring order to my rather chaotic universe. He set up a platform for me to list everything down to the smallest detail. Thanks to this, I've been able to track what I've done and what I still have to do.
Which is good, really. Except that it also sets me on an auto pilot mode in preparing everything. I'll look at the list and then do my best to complete it one by one, without really feeling it. I guess it is not that I'm not feeling things -- I'm a jar of emotion, I feel all sort of unexplainable emotion -- I think what I'm doing is suppressing those feelings and put all my mind and effort in completing the epic list because I know once I open that jar and let myself "feeling", there will be a massive emotion explosion.
Or I probably should do that anyway since suppressing feeling is exhausting.
Ahem, thank you for allowing me to letting that out, feel better now. Okay, so as promised, I will list some of the blogs I've been reading while preparing my application. When applying to Walt Disney World, I think almost everyone had to go through certain period of waiting time. So instead of worrying and obsessively refreshing e-mail or checking your Dashboard three times a day (which I totally did), you'll find reading others' blog or websites as a much more rewarding activities. Of course as always, I know it is easier said than done. I'm pretty sure everyone who applied to WDW developed an obsessive-compulsive behavior at some point.
I sent my application back on early May 2015, and although I knew there was no chance they would get back to me within a month, I did very frequently checking Dashboard and opening emails in a rather obsessive manner for two months or so. Then I got really tired and tried to read these wonderful blogs and website instead. Proven very useful and can significantly distract me from obsessing over nothing.
This was once the biggest hub for everyone to get in touch with practically everyone. There are accepted applicants, candidates, current participants, alumni, you name it. The forum is a bit outdated now, and people are less active, but you can still find all kind of information there. You can also meet new friends, kind souls who will help you or just listen to your worries and complaints, you can befriended people across the world who probably much like you, are struggling with their application. You can always ask around to get advices for housing, transportation, immigration, or if you are interested to learn about previous Cast Member's experiences.
Dan is one of the best Disney bloggers out there. He has done the program before, and totally understand the excitement, the confusion, the wait, everything. He wrote down his experience in detail, add some very useful tips and invited his friends to share their experiences on his blog. By reading his blog, I got a big picture on what it would be like to stay and work as WDW's international program participant.
Meet Adam, my new crush. He put a lot of effort into his blogs and videos and I am so grateful that he did! He compiled most of the important information, told stories of his previous program, kindly shared helpful videos of housing, Wishes, day off and pretty much everything. He explained the application process, interviews, packing, moving-in day, compared the housing and wrote about transportation and so much more. I am somewhere between I'm-so-excited-to-have-a-chance-to-enjoy-a-job-at-WDW-like-that and oh-you-lucky-boy-I'm-so-jealous state every time I read his blog. I've heard that he has been offered a permanent job with Walt Disney Company (congrats, Adam!!) but that also means he could not help us future CRP answering questions regarding application or what should we do to get in. But his previous posts and videos are always accessible and I found all of them very helpful and enjoyable to read/watch.
So Courtney wasn't a CRP. She did another program called Disney College Program (DCP), I think it is quite similar since they also do the same process of applying, attend Tradition, trapped in the hustle bustle of check in and moving in day and all that. Following her journey, I learn more about different roles for Cast Member in Walt Disney World, housing events and all sort of fun things you can do on your day off. She also talked about some of the classes offered at the Disney University.
Kira was also a DCP participant and although she had stopped updating her blog since June 2014, I found her posts as quite helpful to provide details on how it would be like to spend part of your life in Walt Disney World. I'm such a visual person, I need to read a lot of blogs to build a vivid picture of what's generally going on in a Cast Member's life.
This is especially for applicants from Indonesia. Here's kak Bonita's blog and she records her journey from applying to flying to Orlando here. She writes mostly in Indonesian. As I mentioned before, it is quite hard to find South East Asia's CRP blogs, and kak Bonita's Oatbin Stories has helped me to understand the application procedure, the interview, visa and basically the post-offer stage better.
There are a lot of other lovely, helpful and useful blogs the program participants have made out there, not to mention tons of vlogs on Youtube. You can always do some research through the Internet and this is my only advise: read, read, and read. Gather as many information as you could before you apply. Convince yourself that this is what you really want to do, and that you can also benefit from the program. Because you ain't going there for free (yes there are of course expenses associated with the program. The biggest one would probably be the airplane ticket) and just to have fun. It is not that you can't be spontaneous, because being spontaneous is almost always good. But I think you'll miss a lot of good things Disney can offer if you just go without preparation and without knowing at least what you want to do, what you want to give and what you want to get.
So, start reading. I'll see you around!
