WDWCP: Preparing for the Disney Life

After getting my offer for one of the coveted spots available in the Walt Disney World College Program I promptly filled out the acceptance paperwork. There was no way I was passing this up!! Part of doing this internship meant my mom and I had to go shopping. What for? Appropriate clothing to meet the guidelines of the Disney Look. I would like to note that A LOT has changed since I first started, and they have really lightened the guidelines. Back in the 90's, trying to find clothes that met the strict rules was challenging. No bare shoulders. Dresses below the knee. Nylons were required, regardless of what you were wearing. No shoes with an open heel or toe. Only one ring per hand. Small earrings. No crazy hair. No crazy nails. Most of these were easy for me, I'm not exactly wild. But finding the clothes was just painful. I felt like we were shopping for frumpy Sunday church dresses. 

I would be attending seminars as part of the internship, whose motto is "Living, Learning, Earning". We were a bunch of college kids that had to wear professional business attire for our seminars and training. I had ONE outfit I liked. That's it. ONE! I'll insert a photo of that here. Everything else, sure, it was fine, but it wasn't "me". I'm a Converse girl. Wearing long, floral dresses with awful shoulders has just never been my thing.  Shopping in my hometown has always been limited. It is so limited that my roommate and I ended up buying the same frumpy dresses while on our own separate trips with our moms. Oops!

This is the outfit I liked. A zip up black thing with matching pants. Simple, comfy. And really hot on this particular day. I'd totally still wear this if I still owned it and was the size of my 18 year old self.

Another way I was preparing for this experience was more of an internal/mental thing. I was working at the movie theater during college and spent my nights there working on being extra friendly to every customer and working on the challenge... Eye contact!! I knew eye contact was a BIG thing for Disney, and it wasn't something I was exceptional at. So I figured I better get working on that! 

My final days in Oregon found me at an OSU football game, checking out a Wallflowers/Counting Crows concert, and pretty much packing. I was moving across the country and all I had for the next four months was what I could fit in my suitcases. Let's just say getting there was a lot easier. When my internship ended I had to ship boxes of things home, and then lug VERY heavy carry on bags and full suitcases with me. Again, oops!

September 11, 1997 was the big day. My mom and step-dad drove me up to Portland, stopping at McMennamin's for dinner along the way. The roommate and I had a red-eye flight to Orlando, via Chicago. It was very strange and very exciting. We hardly slept at all thanks to all of the nerves and excitement. I mean we were going to be working and living in WALT DISNEY WORLD!!! This is a dream come true to a young Ronda!!

On our Chicago layover we wandered around the airport, tracking down a Cinnabon. We don't have a Cinnabon in our hometown or even our college town, so this was pretty exciting. From Chicago we were up in the air, ready for our landing in sunny Florida. 

What would it be like? Is it really hot? Are there really huge bugs there like my grandma warned me about? Would people have accents? Is Orlando huge? Is it safe? Can we see the Castle from the plane? What will our living situation be like? Where exactly will we work? Who will our roommates be? Will we be in the same apartment? Will there be big hurricanes? Will we see famous people? Can we go to Pleasure Island right away?

So many questions. Neither of us had been to Florida before, so this felt like a foreign land. To some fellow interns, we Oregonians seemed like foreigners. But these questions and more will be answered as this month goes on along!

Next up we land, see roadkill on our way to our new apartment complex, and get to find out just where we would be living and with whom. And Pleasure Island? Yep, that's there, too!  

See ya real soon! °o°