First Day as Disneyland Cast Member/College Programmer

 ​So you would think that Disney is a pretty cool company to work for right?

Well IT IS!

For our first orientation we had an information fair where we got lots of free stuff like pens, pins, and such which is awesome! Then they had a panel of former CP'ers (College Programmers) talking to us and answering questions which was helpful. Then the coolest thing happened.

We got to tour part of the park AFTER HOURS!!!!!!

Yes friends, there was no one in the park but us and the custodial cast.

Oh my gosh!

It was the coolest experience I've ever had, learning more about the history of Disneyland and about the history of Walt and Disney in general.

I don't know how many of you know that there is a clock in the castle. If you have your back to the carousel, and look straight at the castle above the chandelier there it is. No it doesn't work. It's actually set to the time that Walt Disney died in 1966. Which is super cool!

Oh and did you know that all the money dropped into the wishing wells/fountains is donated to charities like the Make-A-Wish Foundation and others? Yeah cool right?! Make sure you stop by the fountains in any of the Disney parks and donate your dreams and wishes to make others come true. ;)

Today we had our "Traditions" class which is our orientation into the Company as a whole. It was chalked full of info and awesome videos of the magic that we will be creating as a cast member. (I'll admit I teared up multiple times) Many times when Walt was talking it was like he was actually there. After the morning we got to tour the park and learn all we wanted to know. I now know some very interesting Disney magic
that of course I will not be telling you. ;) It's all Pixie Dust ;)

After we were done with our class we were about to leave when we remembered we needed our company IDs and name tags before we left. DUH. The cast members were playing dumb about it and said that there was someone special here to give us our IDs and stuff. Now we had been hearing this all day already and it usually turned out to be a movie of Walt speaking about us and the company. Therefore that's what we thought. But they had closed the curtains so we thought that it was just a mistake and they were gonna open them to show a movie. Then we heard "I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse."

Lo and behold they opened it and there was MICKEY MOUSE!! We screamed and jumped up in our seats clapping and some of us were crying (yes including me) and it was then that we knew we were an official part of this thing we call the Disney Magic!

After Mickey led us out of the class we got our IDs and were able to go to the park!! Did I mention for free?! Yeah so me and my roommates spent the evening at Disneyland
and we had so much fun!

So all in all, a very exciting first week! And we're off to the park today, tomorrow, and Saturday ;)