FROM: Amber Earns Her Ears Published Mondays

Amber Starts Work in Future World

If you doubt you'll ever join the Disney College Program, relax: you can ALMOST experience it first-hand through Amber Sewell's weekly reports from Disney World. Amber has just made it through her first week in the program. Let's see how she did.

- Amber Sewell, May 30, 2011

"Or maybe one day you saw a kid drop his Mickey bar and went to get him another one, because that's how we roll here at Disney."

No one ever gave presenters props for having good jokes. Disney, with all of its pixie dust, is no exception. Senses - including sense of humor - deadened by a lack of sleep which not even the most massive amounts of coffee could revive, I sat through the plethora of meetings required of everyone during the first week of the Disney College Program.

Without Coffee, Where's the Magic?

I began my week - I would say bright and early, but even the sun wasn't up yet - at four on Monday morning. I hadn't yet recuperated from my drive down, as my parents and I had hit the parks from the time we arrived until the night before check-in at Vista.

When I got the text from Lindsey, the girl I was going to room with, saying that everyone had reached a consensus of arriving at the ungodly hour of five-thirty in the morning, I was peeved, to say the least. Even the assurances from my mother that she was fairly certain that was about the time we met up last year, I was no more enthused by the prospect of waking up at the same time as inhabitants of England - without the benefit of being in their time zone.

When I pulled in, though, and made it to the security area, there was already a surprisingly good-sized group waiting. I had forgone coffee (a choice muddled by the early hours, I'm certain) and, after being smacked by the security gate because I wasn't paying attention, I made my way to the circle of my roommates. Most of us were there already, and we stood in the path of the fan, conversation deteriorating rapidly into silence several times.

At some point, the number of people in the security tent became too large, and we were moved across the lane, where we formed a spindly line two people abreast, the lucky ones finding a seat on the ledge of a flower bed (myself included) or on the railing. When the sun finally rose, some people began to feel energized, and conversation picked up.

I looked through an enormous pin collection one girl had brought with her; listened with sympathy as another told us how her old car had died right before moving down here, forcing her to scrap it and pay for a U-Haul trailer; and partook (with only some sarcasm) in the attempt at a Wave that petered out halfway through the line.

Finally, finally, at eight o'clock a wonderful woman on her Segway motored over and told us that we would start moving soon. She directed those who had brought their luggage where to put it, gave family and friends directions to their gathering area, and warned people that running would not be tolerated, a rule that those who had been in line since three in the morning (questionable judgment) backed up with a few earnest threats.

Paperwork, Apartments, and Fingerprints

The check-in process was fairly painless and over in less than an hour and a half. We received our sticky name tags, filled out housing paperwork, selected our desired apartments and complexes, and received our keys. I had to borrow Lindsey's cardigan for the picture for our property ID, as I had completely forgotten that tank tops didn't fall within the Disney Look - I was just focused on staying cool in the heat.

After lamenting with the rest of my roommates over the extreme close-ups taken of our faces, I filled out my car registration paperwork (which required my ID, proof of insurance bearing my name, and car registration), and then we were on our way to the buses that would take us to Casting.

At about nine, we boarded the coach buses and listened to our narrator (who resembled Edna from The Incredibles while managing to sound like Flo from the insurance commercials as she explained where Cast Members received discounts) give us valuable advice.

At the Casting building, we stood in line to receive our lovely stickers on our program guides that would tell us where we were working. As I heard "Magic Kingdom", "You'll be joining us at Disney's Magic Kingdom", I was feeling good about my chances. When the phrase "Future World" came from the Cast Member's lips, it is fair to say that I was disappointed, but the fact that I was back at Disney World helped buoy my spirits.

This process took about the same time as had check-in. We were fingerprinted for our background checks, received our pay cards, and were inspected to make sure we fit the Disney Look. After completing a few other stations, I boarded a bus once more and went back to Vista to get my car, then drove to Chatham, my apartment complex.

After inspecting our three-bedroom apartment (which is much more spacious than I would have imagined), we all claimed rooms and began moving in. At some point my parents joined me, but left before three, when we had to leave to attend the mandatory housing meeting. This meeting is dreadfully dull, and I think they choose to have the most boring speaker first. That way they can work you into a stupor with their corny jokes that no one laughs at and the 'instructional' videos filmed by actors worse than those on The Bold and the Beautiful, and hope that when the fun guy comes around for the second half of the meeting, you will be awake enough to go over their rules.

Amber Gets Her Shoes and Gets to Work

The rest of Monday afternoon is already distorted amongst the haze of Disney goings-on, but at some point my parents picked me up to go shoe shopping. Depending on how by-the-rules you are, this can be the most painful part of the process, especially as my parents decided to go to the Florida Mall, which is at the end of a road under construction.

It took ages to reach the mall, and afterward it took just as long to find a store that sold shoes that fit my parents' interpretation of the Disney Look. At one point, I was close to tears from a combination of exhaustion and frustration; any pair of black sneakers would work, as long as some other color didn't scream from the sides. Eventually, though, we found suitable shoes, and decided that my bag of leftover seafood pasta from Olive Garden would function just fine as groceries for the night.

Tuesday my parents came around at some point to take me to Target, where I picked up things from a list I had started the previous day. I drove back to Chatham, and then later over to my parents' resort to join them for dinner at Beaches 'n' Cream. We said our goodbyes, the promise of their return in two weeks making it a less-than-dramatic event.

Wednesday brought Traditions. Luckily, I had managed to miss the early morning class, and instead boarded the bus at 12:45 PM with the rest of us lucky arrivals. I won't say much about Traditions, but despite the fact that I have gone through the same class before, watching some of the videos and hearing some of the letters gave me chills, and at some points my eyes and nose were a little itchy.

Thursday was my first day of work. I met my trainer and one other girl who was going to be trained with me in Future World, and I got my Costumes and made my way to my location. I found out that I'll be working at the gift shop for Journey to Imagination, the Captain EO cart outside, The Land, and the Seas with Nemo and Friends. I spent the day just observing, and Friday was my class in working with merchandise.

Saturday was my first day of real work, and it began as one of the most frustrating days ever. By the time lunch break hit, I was ready to leave; I'd been there since 8:00 AM, and had messed up on the register innumerable times. I printed the information on the wrong slips, gave guests the wrong copies, and forgot to staple things together.

The girl I was training with gave me some great advice: "These people wait in line for Soarin' for two hours. Sometimes they wait in hour-long lines outside. Waiting five minutes to make sure that their shipping information is correct is no big deal."

After that, I was a little less stressed out; it made sense, after all.

As I write, I'm exhausted. I'm sitting on my couch in the apartment, a mug of tea on the table beside me, listening to three of my roommates chat about how they like their jobs so far. Even though I'm a little grumpy from sleep deprivation and frustration, I'm ready to settle into my routine, and glad to be back home.

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