Check-In, Casting, Traditions...the Whole Shebang.

Hello friends!

So this blog was kind of a flop while I was on my program. Despite having a long list of things I wanted to write about, I never did. HOWEVER now that I've been home for almost 3 months (excuse me, what?!) and I'm going through insane PDD, I've decided to start this up again and write about different aspects of the program!

Let me start with check in day. With the new DORMS system, you no longer have to arrive at Vista Way at ungodly hours of the morning to get the apartment you want! Our check in started at 8, so my roommates and I all decided to meet up at 7 outside of Vista! We were some of the first ones there, and we did have to wait a little outside the complex before they let us in, but we all got to bond so it was wonderful! We got led through the Complex to where check in would be taking place, and we had to go through a bunch of stations to get our program guides, register cars, etc. Honestly, most of check in was a big blur to me because I was just too excited that I was finally there! What I did remember was moving into the next room to get our locations! When I say all of my roommates and I screamed when I found out that my location was going to be Cinderella Castle, it's an understatement. I'm pretty sure we got some odd looks, but we were all so happy! From there, we were split into groups - one group who would be going to Casting that day, and one group who would be going the next day. I was the only one out of all my roommates who would be going the next day, so I had quite a bit of down time. I basically sat around the family and friends waiting area with Josh until my roommate Kelsey could drive us back to the hotel to pick up my luggage!  (Side note about luggage, etc - the DCP Transtar busses are running to take you from Vista to the other complexes with your luggage if you need it, HOWEVER, even on check in day, only program participants are allowed on them, so plan accordingly!) After picking up my luggage (4 suitcases...oi) it was OFF TO CHATHAM!!!

Somewhere along the check in process, we had found out that we would be in a 3 bedroom apartment in Chatham, which was our top choice, so we were happy campers! Chatham is absolutely huge and I basically got lost the first time I walked around it, which is why your program guide has a handy dandy map of all the complexes! We got super lucky and were placed in building 15, which is actually the first building on the left when you're entering security.  PLUS we were on the first floor which made it so much easier moving in and whenever we had groceries and stuff!

The red circle is our building, and as you can see, it's SUPER close to the clubhouse and the bus stop! The little pink star thingy was our laundry room so that was wonderful.

After unpacking and getting acquainted and all that jazz, I had to get a good night sleep for casting the next day!! Casting sounds real exciting, and the Casting Center building is cool, but it was actually quite boring. It was just a whole lot of paperwork and background checks. 

  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

The murals inside the Casting Center are all so beautiful!!

"Impossible." "You mean impassable! Nothing's impossible!"

(by far my favorite part of Casting)

Later that week, my roommate/coworker Sarah (yes we have the same name, we're twins) and I had TRADITIONS! Now this was incredibly exciting, but unfortunately, I really can't say much about it. We had the first one of the day, so we were up bright and early to get on the bus to take us there. It was a LONG day but so, so much fun!! After that, we were officially Disney cast members so we RAN to Magic Kingdom to play for the very first time!! 

So yeah that was a lot of info, but that was basically my first week on the program! It was crazy, and filled with a TON of information, but it was so much fun!

That's all for now friends, see ya real soon!

xo Sarah

All About DORMS

Hello friends!

I have exciting news! Today, my roommates and I all received our housing email to pre-register with DORMS! We weren't expecting it for a few more days, so it really threw us for a loop! One of our roommates is actually currently in Israel, so we were worried we wouldn't be able to get in touch with her, but all is well! Basically, one of our roommates sent out the message "HOUSING EMAIL" and we all started freaking out at once.

I tweeted this and it basically sums up how we were all feeling at the time. 

We officially got through the process (though with some minor kinks and meltdowns) and now we are all pre-registered and ready for check-in on January 13th!!!

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For those of you who are interested, I'll talk about the DORMS experience.  Keep in mind that it's still relatively new!

DORMS stands for Disney Onsite Resident Management System.  Basically, it's a new online system where College Program participants can log on and request roommates, housing preferences, etc.  Not too long ago, in order to get the apartment you wanted, you had to get in the check-in line MAJORLY early (I'm talking CRAZY early - people I know got their around 2 a.m.) and you had to be with all of the people you wanted to live in. Essentially, Disney realized that this was an insane process and created DORMS!  With DORMS, you can now indicate preference for apartment complex, unit size, and roommates!

To start off the process, I got an email that looked like this:

This email tells you your user name to log in to DORMS, as well as your roommate #, which you'll need to give to whatever roommate is inputting everyones information so you can all be linked! Something important to note is that while you might be eager to log-in, wait until all your roommates can be communicating at one time, because only one of you can log-in first, otherwise you might not be able to choose each other.  That sounds kind of confusing, so here's the excerpt from the actual email:

If you are choosing to select roommates, please select one person in your group to login and register for housing first. This person will need to know each person(s) roommate # (yours is listed above) as well as the complex and unit size preferences.

Please note that if multiple persons wishing to link to each other log in at the same time you may not be eligible to link with each other once you progress to the roommate matching page. The leader must complete registration prior to any other potential links logging in.  Once the leader has established the links, all other links in the match may proceed with pre-registration.

 In the mean time, in order to log in to DORMS, you'll need a password! You'll get a second email from Disney that looks something like this:

The "temporary access" is your password.  I had a bit of trouble at this part, oddly enough.  I was not the leader of the group, so I had to wait for the email that said "You've Been Linked!" in the subject line.  From there, I was finally allowed to log in! However, I had received two different emails with two different passwords and neither were working.  Eventually, I tried so many times that I was locked out and I had a message pop up that told me I could no longer access my account.  I went into minor panic mode, but I waited a half hour and after receiving a THIRD email (geez Disney, get more organized, will ya?!) I was able to log in!

Now for the steps of DORMS! (I know this post is crazy long, and I'M SORRY)

First, you'll come to the participant profile page!

Clearly this is really basic.  The only thing I have no clue about is what happens when you check "yes" next to "bringing a vehicle?" because I don't have a car to bring! So you fill out all this information, and move on to ROOMMATE PREFERENCES!!

This is the fun part! You only need to fill this out if you are the designated "leader" of your roommate group.  Basically everyone you want to room with gives you their roommate number, and you fill them all in! For each arrival date, there might be a different number of slots you can fill with roommates.  For example, for our arrival date we could only pick up to 5 other roommates (which is good, because we wanted a 6-man apartment!) You also have the option here to tell Disney to choose your roommates for you! If you aren't the designated leader, then you'll be able to skip this step! (Instead, you'll get that "You've Been Linked!" email I mentioned before. Otherwise the process is the same).

If you're the group leader who filled out everyone's roommate #s, you'll then move on to housing preferences!!

Here, you get to rank your preferences for apartment complex and for apartment unit size (aka number of people in your apartment, i.e. a 3 bedroom = 6 person apartment). Again, if you aren't the group leader, you'll be able to bypass this step!

Next come more forms.  Disney loves forms.  The forms you'll be dealing with are the Community Codes Form, the Payroll Form, and the Alcohol Policy Form.  The screen at this point will look something like this:

All you have to do on these is check a box saying you agree and put in your birth date! Super easy!
After that, you review all your info, and SUBMIT! Hurray! You've successfully completed the DORMS process and are now officially registered for Disney housing! Upon completion, you'll receive your onboarding pass for check-in day!  That will look something like this:

YOU NEED TO BRING THIS, AS WELL AS THE OTHER FORMS WITH YOU ON THE DAY OF YOUR CHECK-IN.  If you don't have access to a printer right away, click on the printer symbol (the one in the bottom right hand corner) and there'll be an option to view as a PDF, from where you can save all the documents together! The forms will also be sent to you via email, but I think saving them is smart, just in case.


So that is basically the whole DORMS process! I know this was really long, but I wanted to be as informative as possible, since this is still new! Overall, I think this process is a lot smoother than the way check-in and housing used to be, but clearly there are still some kinks.  My biggest tips for completing DORMS are:

1. Make sure you and all your roommates can sit down and either text/Facebook message/ do SOMETHING that will allow you all to go through the process at the same time.
2. Choose ONE person to log-in. DON'T ALL LOG IN AT ONCE. This is why you should all be talking while you do it.
3. Make sure you've discussed with your roommates your apartment preferences beforehand!
4. If for some reason you're having trouble logging in, DON'T FREAK OUT.  I couldn't log in and I thought for sure I had done something wrong and that all was lost, which was clearly an overreaction.  Just wait a half hour or so before trying again.  Like I said, Disney is still working things out on their end, too.

If you want any more information about DORMS, you can check out Disney's blog post about it here. And that's it! I hope this helps any of you who are going through this process right now! Best of luck to all of you!! We're almost in Disney!

xo Sarah