Check In Day and the Day After

Today's the day! The day I've been waiting for since that glorious morning on October 10.  It came so much faster than expected, but I am so glad to be here now.  I checked in on January 12 at 10am with my 5 other roommates. This was the first time we were all meeting in person, and I was so excited.  I am happy to say I love all of my roommates, and I know we're going to be great friends.

The morning of Check-In I woke up around 8:30am and gathered/organized my things.  We had stayed at the Courtyard Mariott Saturday and Sunday night, and we were checking out that morning (By the way, it was a great resort for a great price; it was the Courtyard on Palm Parkway).  We got in the car around 9:30 to make our way to Vista Way apartments for check-in.  We stopped at McDonald's for breakfast, but I couldn't really eat much because my stomach was full of nerves and excitement.  We pulled into Vista around 10:00am, and I went to the front to meet my roommates so we could begin the check-in process together.

Here is the check-in process in a nutshell....You get your program guide (this is super important, you need it for everything), then the lines begin.  After the first line you get a sticker with your location and your traditions session, then another line, then you find out your apartment complex and number (we got Patterson Court, yay!), and then another line, then you get your picture taken for your complex ID, then another line, then you get your apartment key, then another line, and then your housing ID is ready.  After this you go outside for more lines...woohoo!! The first line outside you get your casting schedule and housing meeting time.  After your schedule you stand in another line, then you talk to a lady/guy about the Disney look and what's going to happen over the next few days, then another line, and then you get to a table about how you would like to receive your paycheck.  All of this was very exciting...it gets better so stay in your seats, folks.  Needless to say there were a few more lines and more talking to people but it was all super important.  Once we finished with the endless lines, we went to unpack our cars.  This was about 11:00 and we all had casting at 12:30, so we drove over to Patterson unloaded and then headed to Chatham to catch the bus to casting.  We all had casting that day except for Mollie. :(

Casting was pretty uneventful. It was a cool building but really the only thing you do there is sign papers and get your fingerprints taken.  Although, it was in this moment as I was walking down the halls to go get my background check done that I realized I was working for the Walt Disney Company.  Such a great and surreal moment.  Casting lasted about 2 hours before we were able to get back on the bus to head back.

After casting, Maegan and I headed back to the apartment.  It started torrential down pouring which was super fun...I guess we better get used to these storms. We were only in the apartment for a little bit when we all split up again to bring our parents to the airport/cars.  Amy, my dad, and I drove Amy's mom to the airport and then we drove my dad to my grandpa's.  This is where Amy and I got stuck for about an hour because the weather was so bad.  It was like a mini hurricane outside.  Once the weather died down, Amy and I drove back to the apartment to FINALLY start unpacking. Our room was such a mess that entire day.  We had no time to unpack all day. We didn't have much time to unpack before we had to get ready for dinner at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian.  Getting to the Polynesian was an adventure in itself...

So we get onto WDW property fine but then I miss the exit for Magic Kingdom so we ended up at Epcot...no big deal. Then we get to Magic Kingdom, get to Polynesian, and I started driving WHILE WE'RE AT THE POLYNESIAN...I was looking for a place to turn in to park because I wanted to get close to the building.  Well, I passed up all the entrances to the parking lots and ended up exiting the resort area and then eventually ended up exiting MK area...MK:1 Marissa:0.  No worries, we eventually made it back but we ended up parking at MK somehow and we took the monorail to the resort. We sure did have an adventure that night, and we learned that I should never lead the caravan of cars.

After a short wait for our table, we were seated and had a magical meal at the Kona Cafe.  We all got the Pan-Asian noodles and split a few desserts.  Amy had a strawberry daiquiri and Maegan had 2 Sangrias...needless to say Maegan was in a GREAT mood the rest of the night.  We took the monorail back to our cars and headed back to the apartment.  First day was a complete and total success.

THE DAY AFTER!!

So, today was very relaxed.  We didn't have much on our agendas besides grocery shop, housing meeting, and get settled in to our apartment.  We woke up around 8:00 because 3 of us, including myself, had a housing meeting at 11am and we wanted to grocery shopping to get as much as possible before we had to be back.  Amy and I got breakfast at Chick-Fil-A because it's the best and then we headed off to Walmart.  With our pocket books aching, we headed back to the apartment to get our Program Guides and the 3 of us (Maegan, Michele, and myself) were off to the Commons Clubroom for the housing meeting.  It was really informative but nothing special really happened. Disney did they're best to make it fun, but it was also a serious meeting at the same time.

After the housing meeting, we walked back to our apartment and ate the leftovers from last night. Then Maegan and I took a wonderful 5 hour nap, which is why we are still up, and then we socialized with our roommates while Anne made us dinner (it was chicken, vegetables, and pasta with alfredo sauce).  After dinner, we had a roommate meeting to discuss the rules and make sure we are all on the same page.  The meeting was a complete success and it reassured me that I had some amazing roommates.

After our roommate meeting, we went back to Walmart to get some things we had forgotten and Michele had to get her stuff since she didn't go with us that morning.  We learned that going to Walmart is a horrible idea because that's when all the tourists come out to shop...so no more Walmart at night (if we can help it).  So, now we're back and I'm sitting here on our couch in the living room finishing up this blog.  Hopefully I'll be able to get to sleep soon, but I still need to write a post about volunteering for the marathon which will be coming soon! Until then, good night!

Here is a picture of my side of the room but it was mid move in so excuse the mess