A Dream Vacation

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to come to Disney World with just your best friends?

Personally, I always wondered.

When I was stressed out in high school or at college, I would surf the vacation planning site trying to figure out where we could afford to stay, and what we'd eat, and when we could go. For some of those moments I really thought we could swing that kind of trip. Of course, between plane ticket costs and the inconsistent funds of young adults, I never found a winning combination. But I was always curious about how it would feel to share the most magical place on earth with the people that you hand picked to be a part of your life.

Well, I realized yesterday that now I know how it feels.

We may not have known it right away, but now, as I'm faced with the task of saying goodbye to my roommates and coworkers, I know for certain that they are some of my best friends. And I got to share Disney World with them.

We stayed in resorts together, we stayed out all night at the parks, we cried at Wishes and also we ignored Wishes to run to Big Thunder. We were there for the premier of the Festival of Fantasy parade, and we frequently cursed under our breath at the brightest traffic jam in Magic Kingdom-- The Main Street Electrical parade. We ate SO MUCH FOOD. We shamelessly threw money into Disney merchandise (#NoRagrets). Sometimes, like families do, we argued over what to do next. Sometimes we just napped on the Carousel of Progress and then went home. A lot of the time we had no money. Most of the time it didn't even matter, because we were penniless together.

You know, it's a sneaky thing this Disney College Program does. You show up all focused on getting your foot in the door, putting Disney on your resume, making connections, etc. and you don't necessarily realize at first that you are also about to meet some of the people you will treasure most in life. Now I'm sure you all assumed that you would make some friends. But did you think, on your way down here, that those people were going to be such significant figures in your life?

I didn't.

At least in college when you make great friends and have to go home for summer, a good 3/4 of the entire school will still be there when you come back. Here, we are blessed to meet people from all corners of the globe, and just as we are blessed, we are disheartened by the realization that when it's over, we might not see them "real soon".

That stated, if I could say anything to an incoming CP, it would be this:

There is only one thing in this program that is actually scary, and it is the day that you have to say goodbye to the people you meet here. I was afraid of so many things at the start: getting an apartment with bed bugs, sympathy barfing during a code-v cleanup, being broke, moving to a state where I had no relatives or friends, etc.None of it-absolutely none of it- was really so bad. The only thing that has been truly, gut-wrenching-ly awful, is saying goodbye to the people who weathered this unique Disney life with me. They made my days bright and my nights magical. Watching them leave is the pits.

It is also the most fulfilling heartbreak I think I've ever experienced.

They were worth melting for.

My Digital Media Marketing Moment

Alright, I said I would post about my meeting with John, so I'm going to go ahead and do just that. In case you aren't sure who "John" is, I will remind you that he is a Digital Media Marketing Manager, which means that he is working in the hip, fast paced environment that I hope to one day enter. John is super cool! And not just because he left me my first blog comment ever. Mostly I think John is cool because, like so many of the castmembers I've met, he was very willing to put aside some time to sit down and chat with me. I always thought it would be REALLY difficult to get in touch with people working in your dream job department. Especially within Disney! But from my experience here, it seems like it's really just about asking. Even if you aren't working in an area with people in your career field, you never know who your managers and teachers know. You know what they say: ask and ye shall receive! 

 Anyways, our meeting was at his office in Celebration, so I got to visit Celebration for the first time. It seems like a pretty decent place to live and work. They have a Panera, a hospital, and some really nice Disney offices. I'm sure there's more to it than that but I didn't really go for a full tour.

I was told that when I arrived, I should park in one of the designated visitor parking spots. When I got there (20 minutes early) all of the visitor spots were full. They remained full for the ten minutes I spent circling. Eventually I just gave up and found a spot that it seemed like no one wanted underneath a low hanging tree. Then I awkwardly stared at the glass door into the building until the polite security guard within assured me I could just open it without using an ID.

My meeting was SO GREAT. Talking with John about what companies have been coming up with lately in social media spaces was interesting enough, but I also got to learn a little bit about the timing of Disney's appearances on social media platforms, and how they operate. For example, when something like Snapchat starts to gain ground, Disney is never the first corporate presence to show up. Usually, it's someone like Taco Bell leading the charge. Taco Bell is catering to a much more forgiving crowd, so they can afford to make some mistakes. Disney then learns from the mistakes and successes of other companies in order to figure out not only HOW Disney should present in this new space, but also IF they should really be in that space.

A lot of times, Disney also has some of the ground work done for them on spaces like Facebook or Pinterest. Since Disney usually comes onto the scene 6 months or so after everyone else, there is often already someone parked under the domain of "Walt Disney World" or "Disney". When digital media marketing reclaims that username,(yes, they take it back) they have all of the previous contributors content to study. This means they already have an idea of what people were sharing and liking from the pages in the past. It may sound silly, but likes can be important in this field, because the likes, comments, shares etc that something receives are sometimes the only way to show the link between what digital media marketing is putting out and how many guests are booking. At the end of the day, there has to be some sort of evidence that the digital media team is having an impact.

I also got to know the tentative date for Disney's Premier on Snapchat! But that's not really a secret anymore :)

Sorry about the wait! I promise more to come in the near future!

My Big Excuse

Well, let me start by apologizing to anyone out there waiting with baited breath to hear about my Digital Media Marketing meeting. I got slammed by Easter week in April, and then just when I was ready to slow down and catch up on blogging....

My laptop crapped out on me.

Unfortunately, it's not the first time my laptop has done this. I have a really nice Samsung with a random number for a name, and it is definitely going through a 'terrible twos' sort of phase. Apparently it isn't only human toddlers that throw frequent tantrums. Twice in the last 6 months my laptop has turned off and simply refused to show any signs of life. The first occasion was resolved by just letting that thing completely run out of battery and then restarting it. This time I think a trip to the factory might be involved.

Anyways. That's my big excuse for not posting.

However, even though I wasn't posting, I WAS writing. So there will be more to come very soon! To make up for my absence, here are some more Disney Snapchats.I haven't had as much free time lately so the numbers have dwindled a little. Also new Snapchat closed out on my Monsters Inc. image so it's a little less finished than I would like. The plus of upgraded Snapchat is that I could still send my WIP screenshot out after the app closed. Also SHOUT-OUT TO KELSEY STRAND for giving me an iPhone stylus for Easter because that thing made Tinkerbell possible.