Visa's, the embassy and the countdown begins

Visa's pfffft 

I've not posted in a while been so busy with everything Disney and university deadlines but i'll do a nice long one now. 

So i received my Disney Welcome pack at the end of February but had to wait until payday in March before i could do anything. i found out i am not very patient. So anyway as soon as payday came i booked my appointment at the embassy, booked my train and hotel and my bank was feeling a lot lighter. 

The woman on the phone who booked my appointment was lovely and helpful she said that shed had loads of Disney folk ringing. Anyway the first date available happened to be my birthday which was cool trip to London for my birthday brill! so i chose 11am on the 4th april to give me plenty of time to get up and find the place as my sense of direction is pants!So i paid the $140 for the appointment and then went to pay my $35 SEVIS fee i'm not too sure what that is but you have to pay it. 

Next was the awful awful DS-160 literally the most overly complicated form ever!!!! i literally was re reading everything to make sure i didn't make a mistake even with a long list of step by step instructions it took a good 1hr and half to do it. It asks some bizarre questions too like:

  Are you a pimp? Do you partake in money laundering? Do you belong to a terrorist organisation? 

i mean it went on for like 3 pages. it was a bit odd coz im pretty sure if you were any of those things you wouldn't admit it but hey ho. After i finally finished i wasn't able to upload a picture so i went to post office and got American Visa photos done and got robbed of £7 shocking! TIP!Go to the Pharmacy near the embassy and get them done there its a hell of a lot cheaper. its called Gould's. 

so moving on...

London and the embassy 

Me and my mum went down the day before my appointment and typical me i got ill, like mega ill i slept for 15 hours so my mum went round London on her own and left me in the hotel. The next morning i got up early had a shower and got ready. checked my paperwork a million times and set off. We stayed in a hotel opposite Hyde Park called the Royal Elizabeth hotel, it was cute and the staff were brilliant they said that even though we had checked out that i could leave my bag behind the desk with all my electrical stuff in so that after the embassy i could come by and pick it up. it was cheap too £70 for the night including breakfast

So i set off at 10:15 just to be safe. turns out i was only 10mins away from the embassy so i got there for 25past so i joined the queue at the embassy.i had to show a woman my confirmation and passport and then join another queue before we even got in the embassy. then you had to show your passport and confirmation to a security man the guy who was there was a bit creepy like to chat up the ladies he did. kept telling me i was gorgeous i was just like please just let me in your old enough to be my dad! anyway then you go into a building before the embassy for security it's exactly like being at the airport. 

when i got into the actual embassy a woman put barcodes all over everything and gave me a number so then upstairs is a huge waiting room and its like being in argues waiting for your number. i think i was sat for 30 - 45 mins 

before they called my number so i went to the window gave everything in and got my finger prints taken and then was told to sit down and fill in a form and wait for my number to be called again. i got talking to a man about disney and he was really excited for me too haha. i had my disney hoody on so a few other disney people come and sat with me too and say another 30 mins they called my number again and i went to another window where the man asked me what i was going to be doing at disney and i told him and he just went right thats great sign here and il approve your visa and you just need to pay the courier fee. so the actual interview lasted 20seconds and i was in there 1hr30mins. not too bad i suppose. 

So i left the embassy and wandered back through hyde park the sun was out and i was boiling i already had a fever. so i picked my bag up and rang my mum who had gone for lunch with friends in london and went for a wander in hyde park to wait and i ended up at the peter pan statue in peter pan gardens where J M Barrie wrote the book it was good i just sat in the sun and waited for mi mam. 

5DAYS later my visa arrived and that was the first time it actually felt real. yeah id paid everything but having that visa in your passport means there is literally nothing in the way. the next check point is DISNEY! 

The Countdown Begins

so as of today i have handed in all my essays for uni so thats officially over my last day of work is the 20th May so i have a grand total of 35days to go!!! iv started buying clothes not too many il shop when im there! and ordered some bikinis so i am raring to go now! 

updates soon 

x

DISNEY'S BIG NIGHT OUT

So its been a few days since the Liverpool Disney Big Night Out and one of the first things i found out about my fellow ICP-ers is that they like a drink!!! Well seen as though a lot of us cant drink when we're over there we better party hard while we can! 


So after my exam at uni and carrying an extremely heavy bag i set off to meet Hayley at the train station so we could make our way into Liverpool and find our lovely cheap Premier Inn with help from a trusty GPS. Where in a matter of 10mins we'd dumped our heavy bags and headed out to hunt down some essentials tan, toothpaste, booze and food. Oh and a case of finding cups as the tiny ones in the room were not going to be good enough. So we did as all good students do find a bargain! 

yes we did use pic a mix cups! 


So back at the hotel apart from running away from some german men down the loooong corridor we started to get ready and drink and eat not noticing the time we arrived at Spoons fashionably late and found a gathering of Disney folk. 


Im not going to lie i was a bit nervous about meeting everyone so i was glad to have a buddy with me, however there was nothing to be nervous about as everyone was really like minded and extremely excited to get to Florida which was nice as i feel iv already bored all my friends talking about it! We managed to meet a few people on our flight and had general chit chat to get to know everyone, the drinks flowed and it soon felt like id known people a lot longer than a couple of hours. 


So after last orders we decided to continue the party and head to a tequila bar ... where else right. By this point id remembered i had a camera so took a few snaps there was more of us but some had had to go because of work and what not so heres some of the disney bunch! 

So we continued on slightly more tipsy and full of some tequila (blehh) to baa bar for some more shots and then the night goes a bit more blurry for me we lost a couple more folk and it was down to me hayley robin and Kieran to be the hard core Disney party goers however i was definitely done with drinking and me and hayley soon called it a night and headed back to the hotel leaving the boys to continue the party im not sure where or how they ended up? 


Anyway iv rambled on far too much but after the initial meeting i think its going to be an awesome summer and i cant wait til March 24th to meet some more from the area and then obviously everyone else i get to meet in the sunshine state itself! on the 24th il try and remember i have a camera and stay away from tequila. 
much love! xxx

Disney hoodies, Disney emails,Disney night out!! DISNEY!

So its been pretty silent on the whole disney front for a few weeks since my first post but everything picking up again which is making me really excited iv even broke out my "Now That's What I Call Disney" CD XD! 

I have three Disney CDs and they will be well and truly worn out by time i get on the plane! 

Since i booked my flights iv found so many people on the same one or the Atlanta leg so iv got me some flight buddies even sitting next to a couple of them which will be nice. 

A couple of girls on a group i was added to on Facebook have been organising getting hoodies made with disney cast member printed on them and there was like a million colours to pick but i finally decided on a laaavely dark navy. Your probably thinking big thick dark coloured hoody in the sweltering florida sun right? well i can start wearing it now just to show off and then it'll be cosy for on the plane. see i have brilliant logic! 

Also I FINALLY got my Disney welcome Email i'd started to think they'd forgotten  me but now i have loads to read that makes me want it to be June even more i think its down to double figures now like 96/97 days... literally counting down the days! It also makes me think of how much i have to do hopefully my pack will come soon so i can book my visa appointment which means a day out in London!! 

Tomorrow is the BIG Disney Night Out for those who are around Liverpool chance to meet people and drink really something i wont be able to do once out there so any excuse to drink. I'm quite excited for tomorrow i'm meeting my flight buddy Hayley at the train station and then going to have a few pre drinks and get ready at a hotel lots cheaper than a taxi back to Manchester! We've also got a day meet up planned too a bit later in March where more people can come out, and i'm rubbish with names so i'm going to have to come up with a system. ... hmm. But i like meeting people and you never know if we cant do room mate matching i might be sharing with some folk i meet this month :) 

I'm also quite excited for travelling after the programme iv booked a tattoo in New York for a couple of days before i fly home which is exciting!! i also have loads of places i want to go but not enough time so i'm going to decide when i'm there if i was 21 and could hire i car id road trip for 3 weeks.... if only! 

ROAD TRIP!!! 

Anyway iv rambled on enough il post some pics from the night out soon!! 

so here's my first blog

So it's been just over a month since I found out I got a place on the Disney international programme for summer 2012 and I am sooooo excited the next 4 months cannot go quick enough. 


So since i found out i'd got the job working in food and beverage (i don't know on what park yet) i have literally told everyone who will listen and i'm sure everyones already getting sick of me but that isn't going to stop me. 


At the start of January i booked my flights my departure date 5th June at 10:20 from Manchester i'm doing a change over in Atlanta and then onto Orlando so i'll finally touch down in the sunshine state at 5:30 (hopefully no delays). 

However the first thing i find myself worrying about is the changeover i've never done one before and i only have 1hr 25mins to get from my plane through customs and on to the next one picking up and dropping of my luggage between that. Theres a few of us so hopefully we will figure it out. 


Its gone pretty quiet on the what we need to do next front after putting in my CRB forms and booking flights iv also paid for my medical insurance. Slowly ticking things off my long to do list. 


In February the Disney pack will come with all information and visa instructions thats when i reckon il get really excited. 


Lastly i'll mention all the people iv got in touch with already through Facebook groups. its nice seeing everyone getting excited and meeting people who are going to be on your flights i would highly recommend joining groups to start meeting people because then having a friendly face to meet when you get to the airport or Orlando its self is an added bonus and takes away the apprehension you are all in it together after all :)