Day One Housing Orientation and House of Blues!

21st June 2011 – 2.30am US Time...

I am so exhausted and yet I really don’t feel in the mood to sleep! I guess I’ve got that excitement going on right now where I don’t want to miss anything, but I’m actually going to have to force myself to go to bed in a minute as I can hardly keep my eyes open right now...

So this morning we had to make our way over to The Commons (the living complex for all of the Cultural Representative participants like my friend Charlotte from home) to use their clubhouse for our housing orientation. Luckily, The Commons is only about a ten minute walk away from my place, so this meant that to be there at 8.30am we all met up at about 8.10am by security and headed over as a big group. On this first orientation thing we were allowed to wear whatever we wanted which was a relief as I hadn’t unpacked my smart clothes at this point! On our little yellow paper schedule for the next couple of days it advised us to bring along our Program Guide (given to us yesterday in the envelope), our passport with the I-94 stamped card inside, the dreaded DS-2019 form and our proof of medical insurance, although to be honest I don’t think we really needed any of that... The only time they came in handy was when I needed to fill out my social security form and I needed my passport number. We filled out and signed a few more things including our soul over to Disney; if we have an idea which could benefit the company, we are now legally obliged to share it and hand over the rights to it. Nice.

We had a variety of different presentations including a ‘welcome session’, Immigration Presentation, Housing Welcome etc. They gave us a massive run-down of the ‘rules’ which include no hazing or initiations, no weapons or threatening behaviour and NO ALCOHOL if you are under 21. It was all pretty obvious, but I guess it is good that they went through it all as one French boy was still confused despite the repetitions about the fact that if you are in a wellness apartment you really can’t drink... ‘But, what if it’s been a long day and I just want one?’ ‘Well, are you 21, sir?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then no, sir, that would not be allowed.’ Poor guy, everyone laughed so hard at him!

The immigration guy was particularly scary telling us how we shouldn’t pay to bail a friend out of jail or be involved with any drugs or under-age drinking as those mistakes could haunt us for life in border patrol.

After we’d finally finished at The Commons I realised that I was actually going to faint if I didn’t have something to eat and soon, so we headed to the Premium Outlets across the road from the complex to have a bit of a Food Court Feast. I chose Chinese and went with Sesame Chicken, Vegetable Spring Roll and Fried Rice which was lovely, but not as nice as I’ve had in the past in the Florida Mall... Will definitely have to compare.

In the meantime Emma was concerned about what to do as she’d been told that her roots were coming through too obviously to be part of the ‘Disney Look’ and that she would have to dye them... It is bizarre really because I think the colour in her hair is really quite natural. Anyway, she decided she’ll take her chances and leave it as it is.

Once we’d finished eating we headed back to Chatham as the buses were to arrive for us at 1.45pm to take us to Vista for our official housing check-in. When we arrived we handed over some paperwork, had our pictures taken and got given our housing ID’s which was great as it now means I won’t have to carry my passport and temporary yellow-paper-proof-of-residence everywhere with me. Having said that, my face has been squashed right down in the picture and I look a right chubby pig on it. Wounder.

At least I’m not the only one. Vikki obviously has the same problem with hers.

Once we were sorted over at Vista we headed back to Chatham and everyone kind of wandered off in separate directions. We’d agreed to do Downtown Disney tonight and go to T-REX ages ago on the facebook group, but we had a couple of hours to kill so I decided to come back to the flat and unpack properly, which was very grown-up of me as I could have just gone to sit around the pool. I rearranged our room a bit also as all the plug sockets were covered up by beds and bedside tables for some reason, but now they’re tons better. I even had time for a quick nap before showering, doing my face, choosing a dress and heading out with everyone.

By the time we got to Downtown Disney T-REX was packed. There were people queuing out of the doors so we decided to give it a miss. We split into smaller groups and everyone headed to different places. Some went to Rainforest Cafe, others to Earl of Sandwich, a couple even went to Pollo Campenero (which I hear was a big of a disappointment) whilst we headed to House of Blues. It was Johanna’s birthday so it was nice to do something special!

Whilst the servers sorted us a table for 13 people we sat at the bar. Glass-doors (Johanna), Jayne and Bethan celebrated with a cocktail, whilst me and Vikki went wild and savoured our Cokes with lime. Delicious. While we were waiting, a guy called Joe who I’ve never met before materialised and we invited him to join us. I think I’m really going to be good friends with him. He’s so funny. Gay though. Gutted.

Once we got seated I decided I would have the kiddie cheese burger which was about $8. I chose blue cheese and had a side of blue cheese dressing too. Vikki chose the adult version of what I had which I think was about $15 but a massive rip-off as when they arrived mine was only about two ounces lighter than hers with a few less fries and a smaller salad. PLUS I only ate half of mine and took the other half away in a doggie bag. Economical Gabbi For The Win!!!

Our waitress was lovely and she helped us all choose. She even put all our food on separate bills and wrote a little ‘Good Luck as new Disney Cast Members’ note on the bottom of each one. Attention to detail or what???

After we’d finished at House of Blues half of us came home whilst the other (over 21) half went over to Bongo’s for more cocktails. So jealous of them.

We waited for the bus in the completely wrong place so ended up missing it but eventually we managed to make it home. Vikki and Joe came back with me and Taryn for a bit and we exchanged some stories and just generally had a bit of a gossip!

They left about an hour ago and I’ve since had a shower and am pretty much ready for bed. Stupid internet still isn’t sorted even though me and Taryn bought a wireless router yesterday. It turns out we need a cord which they were supposed to provide us with when we moved in but it wasn’t here so we have to wait for someone to bring us a new one tomorrow. Will be nice to be able to check my facebook, Skype my family and of course upload these blogs! I’m supposed to be at Vista Way tomorrow by 1pm so I’d better go to sleep as I don’t want this lack of rest to catch up on me and accidentally sleep until the day after!

Thanks for reading and keep checking back J

gabriellasofia

ps. The weather has been amazing... can’t wait to get some tanning in tomorrow. Saw Kristian on the way to DTD and he said we could hang together at Vista Pool after our meetings tomorrow so I’m super excited!

Hell in Immigration...

19^th June 11.00pm (ish) UK Time... 18.00 (ish) US Time...

So remind me never to lose the DS-2019 ever again. Not to scare anyone else that has, but it created a major inconvenience in immigration which I really wish I’d avoided... So what’s the story?

Well, following an excellent ‘Disney Cast Member Shout-Out’ from the lovely air stewardess, to which rapturous applause and cheering ensued upon landing, we all left the plane. Immediately upon leaving I spotted a delicious specimen of a man with dark hair, a smouldering expression and a federal government uniform on. However, since I was ‘laying low’ due to the loss of my vital US document I let him pass and joined the queue for immigration. Probably for the best. Anyways, after waiting for what seemed like an eternity but probably only lasted about half an hour, I made it to the front of the queue. I got an old-man immigration officer. I gave him my documents, did my fingerprints etc, but when he asked for the fatal document and I said I couldn’t provide it, he looked at me like I’d told his three-year-old the ‘truth’ about Santa Claus. I told him about the nice American guy at Gatwick, but neither of us had any idea who he was. Damn, I should have taken that guy’s name and job role or something. A complete case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. He said, ‘This is a VERY important document. You now have to enter a room where they will decide whether to let you into the country or not.’ Then he pulled a face like he didn’t hold out much hope, sarcastically muttered, ‘Welcome to America’, tutted and sighed as if exasperated for a little while, took my picture, then escorted me to this little room.

Now, he was obviously a complete douchebag because at this stage I was thinking, ‘Oh my God. I’m being treated like a common criminal, like on Nothing to Declare or Border Patrol (yes, I watch too much LivingTV...) I’m going to be led to this dark room alone and have to answer questions and all my friends will be gone L’ He failed to mention the fact that all of us were going to be led to this ‘Doctors-Waiting-Room’ style place. Fool. He could have put my mind at ease. He obviously wasn’t interested in that. So when I got there, I saw Jasper and Robert (two lovely Dutch guys I’d met on the plane who were also coming to work for Disney) and the others began filing in after me.

The immigration guys had kept our passports and after about twenty minutes they began coming out and announcing names, handing people their passports and sending them on their merry way. Jasper and Robert wished me luck and left. Then Louise and Emma did the same even though they were after me, and that’s when I realised I’d probably be there for a long time. I told them to leave me behind and I’d find my own way to Vista Way, which was very grown-up of me if I say so myself.

This old-black-man meanie immigration officer came out, read my name, so I was like, ‘YESSS I CAN LEAVE!’ Unfortunately, all he said was, ‘Your DS-2019 isn’t here.’ Well, duh, old man. Get with the program. We’ve already been through this. ‘Yes, I lost it... I told your colleague...’ I replied. ‘Lost?’ Seriously, this guy was even more of a moron than I am for losing it in the first place. ‘Yes. Lost.’ ‘Well. That’s interesting.’ Then he walked off. Thanks dude. Thanks a lot.

More names were read out and the people from the Virgin flights that left Gatwick and Manchester at a similar time came and went. Luckily there was still a bunch of them like Craig, Vikki, Emily and her friend Heather who were still around when this hot young immigration office called me out. I couldn’t decide whether to take my bags or not, and in the panic I nearly broke my neck. Well, that’s an exaggeration, but I stumbled a bit in my heels.

Thankfully, this guy was pretty sound. Very professional, but he didn’t seem to be there just to scare me like the others. I explained everything to him and he told me that I was about the 6^th person for Disney today who had the same problem and that I wouldn’t be the last. When he took my fingerprints, I’m not even joking, Emma who was miles away at the luggage carousel says she could see my hand shaking. I was so nervous! These nerves were eased a little by this mixed-race-hottie-pants immigration officer walking by and very UNprofessionally looking me up and down before going, ‘DAMN! Dude, are you handpicking them???’ to the guy who was helping me. Taking my tights off on the plane was evidently a good shout. ‘No, man, she’s got a 419 (don’t remember the number but it was something like that) you wanna take it?’ That’s when I realised how much of an inconvenience I was to them, because Sexy Immigration Officer was like, ‘No way... it’s not worth it’ before winking at me and walking off. Great. Now Sexy Immigration Officer thinks I’m an idiot too. Boo.

I was taken into a little office where me and my guy sat in silence for about 40 minutes while he filled out a form. Eventually, he told me I’d have to talk to my program co-ordinator and get them to sort me a new DS-2019 (which he said was a ‘very expensive document to lose’... naturally I nearly had a seizure as I’m tighter with money then an Oriental's... well, let’s just say I’m pretty tight.) Then he grinned, said ‘Welcome to America Gabriella, have a magical day!’ to which I laughed, gushed some thanks then left with my passport. A mere three hours after my plane had landed. BAH. It was all my own fault for losing the document, I know that. But still. BOO.

Now it was time for my next drama of the day. So I come out of this office and was chuffed to see that Vikki and Craig had only just gotten out too. We collected our cases together (I have two massive ones remember) and began to leave with a couple of others. To get from the immigration side of the airport to the area where we needed to catch our shuttle you have to take a monorail, and to get to the monorail, you have to go up an escalator. Well, I was never going to manage that with two suitcases so who was I to turn down the opportunity to meet my bags at the other side? There was some airport people who were like, ‘Ahhh just put your bags on this conveyor belt, then they will arrive at belt B27 when you get off the monorail.’ Like an idiot I believed them. Epic Fail. At least I wasn’t the only one, Vikki and her friend Charlotte did it too, but because they were on a different flight, their suitcases were going to be in Zone A.

Standard. When I got to B27 the carousel was closed. Of course it was. I asked a guy and he was like, ‘Uhhh no, this carousel stopped moving like an hour ago because everyone off the BA flight has gone.’ HELLOOO??? Apparently not! I am living proof of that. So he sent me to a BA office. Which was of course closed. Then I wandered around panicking for a little while with everyone sending me in the wrong directions. By this time I’d lost Vikki, Craig and the others so I was feeling pretty depressed when finally a man from Air Lingus went and found me a BA staff member named Mary Wilson. She was so nice. She took me into the back office and let me use the phone to call Vikki (who didn’t answer... pfttt) and then Disney Arrivals to find where to get the Mears Shuttle from. In the meantime she found my cases for me, then walked me all the way to the shuttle stop, which is where I am now. I bought my ticket ($16 from $31 because I’m a Disney Cast Member eeep!) and I’m now waiting with a little buzzer thing on a bench in the Florida heat! Sucks that I have to get it alone and that I couldn’t get in touch with Vikki, but hopefully I should be there in an hour or so.

What a day from hell. Managed to call dad just now and tell him that everything went swimmingly... I hate to worry him and to be fair what didn’t kill me made me stronger I guess J Hope he didn’t mind a phone call in the middle of the night...

Anyways, I’ll keep you posted guys! Au revior!

gabriellasofia