Yesterday I went through Casting, which basically means they take your fingerprints for background checks and make sure all your paperwork (I-9, W-4, etc) are in and correct. Staci, my roommate who is from Richmond, and I thankfully had the same "check-in" time so we carpooled to the Casting Center which is right by Downtown Disney.
As I have never been to Disney World before, I was fan-girlling all over the place. There were Donald Ducks, Mickey Mouses, and magic all over and I knew that I was just at the tip of the ice berg. They even had a door handle to Casting that was exactly like the one in Alice and Wonderland - except for the fact that it didn't come to life.
Oh, I should also clarify one thing: "Casting" does not mean that I will be a character in the actual parks. All employees, whether playing characters or not are considered "cast members." When you start the application process, you are given a "recruiter" and everything. Everything in the wonderful world of Disney is about Show - from your work to how you act, make sure that you are professional.
For some reason, both Staci and I were really nervous for Casting - they really don't do anything, but it's just the reality of really starting to work for Disney that got to us, I think. As we were driving to Casting, Staci noticed that I did not cover up my wrist tattoo, which according to the "Disney Look" is against the rules. I started freaking out, but thankfully we came up with a solution to just cover it up with my lanyard (thankfully it was fine for Casting that I did not have it covered up, but from this point forward I have to either cover it with make up or wear long sleeves - yuck). We left the house almost an hour early because of our nervousness and sat in the car until 1pm to not be too early, but by the time we entered Casting, there was already a line, so it was probably a good plan that we left so early.
Going through the process was a breeze and everyone is pretty much open to a conversation and some light jokes to make the day go by faster. As I went to my first station I had to wait with one of the Full-Time cast members and he said "Wow, you must be good." I was really confused and asked, "Wait, what do you mean?" He casually showed me my folder and to me I didn't see anything highlighted or different, so I just looked at him with a confused face. He then responded with "Let me give you some perspective here - There were over 30,000 people who applied for these jobs and only 300 were accepted. You should be proud that you were one of them." Wow. I did not know that there were that many applicants and that there were so few accepted. I knew that it was a big deal that I got in, but that is crazy. Nick, my roommate who is from Detroit, and I did the math and that is 1% of all applicants who applied were accepted. Crazy!
I have recently experienced the Florida sun and it is now showing on my face and shoulders aka I have the sunburn from hell. It is getting better, but that still did not keep every single full-time cast member from pointing out that I "got some sun" and that I "made real good friends with the sun." Yup. I'm aware. I literally look like T-Rex when I drive, so if I couldn't see it, I have definitely felt it.
After Casting we went back to our town house/house/condo, or as my roommates and I like to call it a tousedo, and just chilled with each other. We're already running low on money, so we are trying to find things to do that are free - which in Orlando are not many, however we DID find something that will be covered in tomorrow's blog - oh, just wait, it's amazing.
One funny thing happened today, we found that Nick has a hidden smiley face in his drawers, can you find it?
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