A Shining New Era is Tiptoeing Nearer for the TCD Gang

[BigTom 76]

Well, we have finally reached the beginning of the end of this TR.

 

Yesterday, the last part of the new era that we've been tiptoeing toward for three months arrived.

 

GDF called it.

 

This week, Twin #1  will be joining Twin #2 as a Disney College Program CM:

 

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I just moved Twin #1 into her Disney apartment yesterday.  This week, she will go through the requirements of becoming a CM, including Traditions.

 

She is in the unique situation of not knowing her exact role at this time, but she will know it by the end of the week.

 

In a bit, I will back up and give you a short update about this visit to WDW.

 

TCD

Does this mean double discounts for camp sites for TCD

[Seals 111]

Congratulations to Twin #1.  Was she interested all along or did seeing Twin #2 having so much fun make her want to apply too? How long will she be in the program?  And I would have thought you would have encouraged her to start when Twin #2's program ended so that you could stretch out the CM discounts over a longer time. Although I have a feeling you might have CM (and eventually CEO) discounts for a long time.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

It's going to be incredibly embarrasing someday when one of the twins is being considered for an executive position within the company and a background check turns up their relationship to Yuri.   

[momof3kids-Yvonne 596]

Congratulations to Twin #1!

[dvccamper 32]

That is so great! Did she already have that plan in mind or was she motivated when her sister was accepted?

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Congrats!

 

Our oldest son, AJ, has about 1 semester and he will finish his Associates degree.

He and his wife have been talking about looking at jobs with Disney.

He worked at AK during his Senior year of high school.

 

It might be fun for a young couple to work at Disney.  But, the work schedules would make it tough on them.  I think it's great for college kids, though.

 

How exciting that they will have memories to share of doing the program that they are doing separately.

 

Yes, they are both really looking forward to it. They've lived a couple of hours apart from each other for a year.  Now, they're living and working in the same city.

 

Congrats!  How exciting!

 

Thanks.  No one is more excited than they are.

 

I wish my daughter would have done it but she wouldn't give up one of her three degrees. She really wanted to get done in the four years.

 

Three degrees?  That's not too shabby.  That probably looks better on a resume than saying you took a semester off to play at Disney World.

 

Congrats to her and you! (And bragging rights to me!)

 

I know she'll be just as awesome as Twin #2. 

 

She's going to have to work hard to be as awesome as Twin #2.  The college program has really clicked for her.

 

Sweet!!  More experiences and updates to share....

 

That's true.

 

Congrats to Twin #1!!

 

Thanks.

 

This Shining New Era is really cool!  

 

I know when the twins started college, many of us were worried that this would mean less TCD TR's.  It now seems it means more! :jumpforjoy

 

I think I've definitely been to Disney more this summer than I have ever been before.

 

It will be interesting to see how things work out now that the twins are both there.  They are working in different roles, and it may be rare for them to have off at the same time.  But, we shall see.

 

Congrats to Twin#1 and you (because that will mean more trips!)

 

I hope that it means more trips.

 

I already know of a couple of things that Twin #1 forgot at home. I offered to drive them over (even though I just got back yesterday).  She told me it could wait.  LOL.

 

Good question, but I have no idea! :D  Probably cheaper to outsource.

 

That's probably it.  Land's End must have the connections to mass produce sweaters cheaply than Disney does.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Does this mean double discounts for camp sites for TCD

 

I guess I'm going to get that question a lot.

 

LOL.

 

Congratulations to Twin #1.  Was she interested all along or did seeing Twin #2 having so much fun make her want to apply too? How long will she be in the program?  And I would have thought you would have encouraged her to start when Twin #2's program ended so that you could stretch out the CM discounts over a longer time. Although I have a feeling you might have CM (and eventually CEO) discounts for a long time.

 

Actually, they both applied at the same time.  Twin #2 applied for and was accepted to the Fall Advantage program, and Twin #1 applied to the regular fall program.  They wanted to try to be there together, and figured that this was the best time in their college careers to do it.  They got accepted to their respective programs within a day of each other, so Twin #1 has had a long wait to begin.

 

It's going to be incredibly embarrasing someday when one of the twins is being considered for an executive position within the company and a background check turns up their relationship to Yuri.   

 

Yeah,  That could be a problem.

 

Hopefully, the connection won't be made.

 

Congratulations to Twin #1!

 

Thanks.

 

That is so great! Did she already have that plan in mind or was she motivated when her sister was accepted?

 

They planned this all together.  It's amazing that it worked out.  It would have been bad if one got it and the other didn't.  But, they both were accepted.  And, they got the roles they wanted. Very, very lucky.

 

We will see if they get to spend as much free time with each other as they had hoped.

 

TCD

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

What's the difference between regular fall and fall advantage?

[sherryberry 35]

This is great news! This shining new era is awesome!

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Woot! Woot!

I'm so glad you final posted about twin #1 bring in the CP. I don't know if you told me this summer when we met at MK ot if it was twin # 1. or maybe another time. But you swear me to secrecy. Do you know how hard it is for a big mouth like me to keep my mouth shut.

[LONE-STAR 370]

Congrats. That's pretty neat that they both get to do it at the same time.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

What's the difference between regular fall and fall advantage?

 

Good question.  I was initially confused by how this all works too, but I think I have it straight now.

 

The concept behind the program is that college students will take one semester off from school and work as a paid intern at WDW.  So, they have the program geared to begin with the typical start dates of the fall and spring semesters of college. For those doing the program for just the fall, their start dates are staggered over the month of August, and end in the first week of January.  For those doing the program just for spring, their start dates are staggered in the month of January, and end around the beginning of May.

 

The "Advantage" part of it means that the participant is tacking on the summer months to his or her program.  For Spring Advantage, those participants start in January, and continue working through August.  For Fall Advantage, those participants start in May, and work through the beginning of January.  This is how Disney staffs positions for the summer.

 

TCD Twin #2 started college with the summer semester last year, so she planned to not go to school this summer.  That meant she had time to apply for Fall Advantage, and start the program in May.

 

TCD Twin #1 started college with the fall semester last year, and planned to go to school for the summer semester this year, half of which was in the study abroad program she did in May.  She didn't want to give that up, so she just applied for the regular fall program, and began that on August 18th.

 

Both twins have the same end date for their programs-January 5, 2015.

 

This is great news! This shining new era is awesome!

 

So far, so good.

 

Woot! Woot!

I'm so glad you final posted about twin #1 bring in the CP. I don't know if you told me this summer when we met at MK ot if it was twin # 1. or maybe another time. But you swear me to secrecy. Do you know how hard it is for a big mouth like me to keep my mouth shut.

Good job keeping the secret, Ray.

 

 

As we probably discussed, I was concerned about putting too much information on this board, as I didn't want people stalking the girls or causing them any problems.  At first, I wasn't going to mention it at all.  Then I wasn't going to say where they work.  But, the cat is mostly out of the bag about Twin #2, and there haven't been any problems.  She works in merchandise, and has moved around a lot more than I thought she would.  She's been stationed at the Wandering Oaken's Trading Post in Hollywood Studios for three weeks now, but next week moves to a new location.

 

Twin #1 doesn't know the full details of where she will be working .  She decided to go a different route, and asked to be placed in a park as an attraction operator.  She has been assigned to what they call Ad-Lib in Disney lingo.  That means Adventureland-Liberty Square.  She will be assigned to one or more of the attractions there.  That could mean Haunted Mansion!-or Hall of Presidents.  Or Jungle Cruise!-or the Tiki Birds.  She won't know until Friday.  She is prepared for anything, and is very happy that she was assigned to the MK, and will more than likely be working at a classic attraction.

 

Congrats. That's pretty neat that they both get to do it at the same time.

 

That is an added bonus for both of them.  Time will tell if their schedules will give them much time to hang out with each other.  But, so far, they're loving it.  Twin #1 just moved in to her apartment on Monday, and Twin #2 was over there hanging out and meeting her roommates till the wee hours that night.  I think both of them being there at the same time will make things much more fun for them- Twin #2 has enjoyed going to the parks with her roommates, but they are all newbies compared to how the TCD gang rolls.  One of Twin #1's new roommates is from the west coast, and has never even been to WDW.  Now she's going to live and work there for 4 months.  That is mind boggling to me.

 

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

That's mind boggling to me too!

 

Hope the twins get similar schedules and get to spend lots of time with each other.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

That's mind boggling to me too!

 

Hope the twins get similar schedules and get to spend lots of time with each other.

 

I'm sure it's going to all work out.

 

While it's fun to visit the parks with newbies, I know the twins will have way more fun with each other.  Plus, since they still have valid passes, they can schedule FP+'s in advance, which regular CM's still can't do.

 

TCD

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

You should be very proud of all your girls. :)

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

You should be very proud of all your girls. :)

 

As the kids say, I am hashtag blessed.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Well, here we go, the beginning of the end of this very long trip report, which will finally bring us in to the shining new era.

 

This TR began three months ago with me taking Twin #2 over to WDW so she could check in to the Disney College Program.

 

Almost three months to the day later, it was Twin #1's turn.

 

This time, Twin #2 is a CM, so she was able to book us a discounted room.

 

I asked her to see what she could get us in a moderate resort.

 

She scored us a room in my new favorite moderate resort, Port Orleans French Quarter.

 

And summer rates are over.

 

Which means the night in a moderate resort cost me a grand total of $85.  Eighty Five bucks!  How do you like me now?

 

Twin #1 needed to check in early Monday morning.

 

But, since we would be spending the night, we decided to make a little trip out of it.

 

When Twin #2 and I made this trip three months ago, we left home really early to make rope drop for a Star Wars Weekend at DHS.

 

There was no need for any such craziness on this trip.

 

We decided to take it easy.

 

We would use the wonderful FP+ system to reserve three mid morning FP+'s at Animal Kingdom, and then meet up with Twin #2 for lunch at the resort.

 

Sounded like a plan.

 

I booked the FP+'s.  We had Expedition Everest for 9:30-10:30, then Dinosaur from 10:45 to 11:45, then Kilimanjaro Safaris from 11:45-12:45.  We would hit those three rides and then break for lunch.

 

So, here's a trick- FP+'s will be honored for 5 minutes before and 15 minutes after a return time.  That meant that we could ride EE at 10:45, then head right to Dinosaur and ride it.  No waiting.  Then, take some kind of break, and hit the safari.

 

We left home around 8, and made it to the hotel by 9:30 with no problems at all.  I had all of Twin #1's earthly possessions in my truck, and she had a few things in her car.  We decided to leave those at the hotel, and take the bus.  After a quick break in the hotel, we headed to the bus stop.  We didn't have to wait long.

 

And, here we are in the AK.

 

I know that Camp Minnie Mickey is closed and under construction, but I didn't know about these walls they had up around the Tree of Life and the old Tip Board:

 

 

The entrance to It's Tough to Be a Bug was also walled-off:

 

 

Anyone know what's going on here?

 

It was just a bit past 10:30, and it looked like there was still good FP+ availability here:

 

 

I have heard that "Limited" actually means none, but I don't know that for a fact.

 

It was past 10:30 when we arrived at EE, but we were admitted through the FP+ queue with no questions asked.

 

There was one trip we took in the last year where they had video screens in operation in the last room of the queue, but they have been covered up every trip since.  I still wonder what that was all about?:

 

 

I couldn't think of anything funny to do for the ride photo, so this is what we got:

 

 

Then it was time for Dinosaur.  We headed straight there, and walked right in- once we got in the main waiting area we saw that there were more guests in the FP+ line than there were in standby:

 

 

That was odd.  No one was coming in to ride:

 

 

It's been a while since I've seen the standby line this empty:

 

 

Now, here's something interesting.  Those photos were taken at around 10:57 am.   I didn't know it at the time, but I had been sent this email at 10:42 am:

 

 

As I said, I hadn't seen the email before we headed to Dinosaur, and we used our FP+ there with no problem.  I wonder what that was all about?  Maybe the ride had been down and we arrived just as the reopened it?

 

Whatever was going on, I think it's incredibly stupid for Disney to be sending out emails like that.  Why can't they send a text?  I would notice a text right away.  I don't check my emails very often on a Sunday.

 

Well, whatever was going on, we ended up having a great ride.  Our car had several kids who had never been on the ride before, nor had their parents.  We smiled at each other as the parents assured the kids that the ride wouldn't be scary.  Right:

 

 

On display in the gift shop near Dinosaur:

 

 

How much profit do you reckon Disney makes on every sale of one of those?  My guess is just over $12.

 

We took a leisurely stroll to the safari, and found a fan to sit in front of and enjoy a cold bottle of water.

 

Then is was ride time.

 

One of Twin #2's roommates is a safari driver at Kilimanjaro Safaris.  That's wild.  She's a small girl, with just a regular driver's license, and after a couple of days training, they stick her out there driving those huge trucks around a fake African savannah.  Crazy.

 

We didn't get Twin #2's roommate. 

 

I'll spare you most of the safari photos.

 

But, you need to see these elephants cooling off in the water.  I haven't seen them doing that before:

 

 

One more safari photo- it's one of the River Country panthers, I think:

 

 

So, now it's just past noon.  We rode EE, Dinosaur and the Safari, and now it was lunch time.

 

Time to head out.

 

But wait, what's going on here?:

 

 

No, not the guy in the camo shorts and black wifebeater, I meant this CM with the big duffel bag:

 

 

What do you think is in there?

 

And where is she taking it?

 

Interesting.

 

Let's go.

 

But wait, look at that guy in the blue shirt with the camera on a long pole:

 

 

Like, what the heck is he going to do with footage of him walking through a crowd at Disney World?

 

Oh, and over there- that lady in the blue shirt just took a photo with her iPad:

 

 

Crazy stuff was happening.

 

I blame the super moon.

 

Anyway, we hopped the bus back to the resort.

 

And Twin #2 was there!

 

We ate lunch at the quick serve restaurant.  Twin #1 and I had shrimp po boys.  Twin #2 had a beef one. They are huge and delicious.  I recommend them.

 

Then we headed to see the room.

 

Twin #2 had checked us in while she was waiting for us to arrive.

 

The CM let her pick from several different rooms.

 

She picked a ground floor room in building 1.

 

Which was really convenient to the parking lot, but not as close to the pool and lobby as we were last time.

 

No worries, though, POFQ is a very compact resort, and we were still very close to everything.

 

Twin #2 had to go and get ready for work.

 

So, Twin #1 and were going to chill, then hit up the pool, and then head to DHS for a second round of FP+'s and to see Twin #2 at the Frozen-themed Wandering Oaken Trading Post.

 

Which meant I had some time to check on something that I've been meaning to do for a while.

 

Probably nobody remembers this thread from earlier in the year:  http://www.fortfiends.net/forum/topic/12015-dinner-a-movie/?p=331155

 

But, I have a mind like an elephant.  Where the peanuts at?  I mean, I never forget.

 

I wanted to check and see if there is a walkable path between the Old Key West Resort and POFQ.

 

Even though it was 95 degrees out and sunny, I went.

 

Probably nobody notices it, but there's a little ramp on the curb of the parking lot over there by that lamp post:

 

 

And that ramp leads to a dirt road:

 

 

There is no Do Not Enter sign.

 

Or a Castmembers Only sign.

 

There is no sign.

 

Oh wait, I meant to time this so we would all know how long this walk takes, if it's even possible to walk to the Old Key West Resort from here.

 

So, that last photo was taken at 2:58 pm.  Remember that.

 

That dirt road goes through the woods, and I could see that there was some kind of maintenance area down at the end of it:

 

 

Now we're in that clearing we saw up ahead in that last photo- it looks like this is where the landscapers dump stuff:

 

 

 

There's a fenced in area over there:

 

 

The dirt road continues to my left:

 

 

I can see that there's a major road there at the end of the dirt road, because of all the traffic whizzing by.  Here we are at the end of the dirt road:

 

 

I can see that the busy road is Disney Vacation Club Way.  And right across the street is the Old Key West Resort:

 

 

That photo was taken at 3:02 pm.

 

So, that walk took all of four minutes.

 

Not bad.

 

But, here's the thing.  That sign over there next to the sidewalk says Castmembers only.  And there are gates there to restrict traffic:

 

 

There's a bus stop here on the road:

 

 

So, that must be the CM entrance to the resort.  I'm not sure if a regular guest can walk in there and get access to the resort.  It was hot out, and I could see CM's over there behind the gate.  And, I decided not  to try.  My main purpose was to see if the path existed, and it does.  I'll probably come back this way early one morning and see if I can get in to the resort by way of that sidewalk.  If so, that means it's pretty easy to walk from OKW to POFQ.

 

On the way back, I noticed that there are gates that apparently could be shut to block access, but it doesn't look like these gates have moved in a while:

 

 

One other item to note- there were no workers around when I walked that path.  I'm fairly certain that they wouldn't want guests walking through here if they were driving tractors and trash trucks down those roads.  Also, that dirt road isn't lit at all.  I'll bet it's really dark at night.  Maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to be walking back to OKW through here after a night enjoying Yeehaw Bob.

 

But, there's another item to check off of my to-do list.

 

Next up, we will head over to DHS and look for Twin #2.

 

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Great detective work!

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

 

Good question.  I was initially confused by how this all works too, but I think I have it straight now.

 

The concept behind the program is that college students will take one semester off from school and work as a paid intern at WDW.  So, they have the program geared to begin with the typical start dates of the fall and spring semesters of college. For those doing the program for just the fall, their start dates are staggered over the month of August, and end in the first week of January.  For those doing the program just for spring, their start dates are staggered in the month of January, and end around the beginning of May.

 

The "Advantage" part of it means that the participant is tacking on the summer months to his or her program.  For Spring Advantage, those participants start in January, and continue working through August.  For Fall Advantage, those participants start in May, and work through the beginning of January.  This is how Disney staffs positions for the summer.

 

TCD Twin #2 started college with the summer semester last year, so she planned to not go to school this summer.  That meant she had time to apply for Fall Advantage, and start the program in May.

 

TCD Twin #1 started college with the fall semester last year, and planned to go to school for the summer semester this year, half of which was in the study abroad program she did in May.  She didn't want to give that up, so she just applied for the regular fall program, and began that on August 18th.

 

Both twins have the same end date for their programs-January 5, 2015.

 

 

So far, so good.

 

Good job keeping the secret, Ray.

 

 

As we probably discussed, I was concerned about putting too much information on this board, as I didn't want people stalking the girls or causing them any problems.  At first, I wasn't going to mention it at all.  Then I wasn't going to say where they work.  But, the cat is mostly out of the bag about Twin #2, and there haven't been any problems.  She works in merchandise, and has moved around a lot more than I thought she would.  She's been stationed at the Wandering Oaken's Trading Post in Hollywood Studios for three weeks now, but next week moves to a new location.

 

Twin #1 doesn't know the full details of where she will be working .  She decided to go a different route, and asked to be placed in a park as an attraction operator.  She has been assigned to what they call Ad-Lib in Disney lingo.  That means Adventureland-Liberty Square.  She will be assigned to one or more of the attractions there.  That could mean Haunted Mansion!-or Hall of Presidents.  Or Jungle Cruise!-or the Tiki Birds.  She won't know until Friday.  She is prepared for anything, and is very happy that she was assigned to the MK, and will more than likely be working at a classic attraction.

 

 

That is an added bonus for both of them.  Time will tell if their schedules will give them much time to hang out with each other.  But, so far, they're loving it.  Twin #1 just moved in to her apartment on Monday, and Twin #2 was over there hanging out and meeting her roommates till the wee hours that night.  I think both of them being there at the same time will make things much more fun for them- Twin #2 has enjoyed going to the parks with her roommates, but they are all newbies compared to how the TCD gang rolls.  One of Twin #1's new roommates is from the west coast, and has never even been to WDW.  Now she's going to live and work there for 4 months.  That is mind boggling to me.

 

TCD

 

Thanks for explaining. That makes perfect sense.

 

My friend's daughter that did the CP went out to DL. She grew up in FL and had been to WDW a million times. She was a huge Disney fan, but wanted to experience DL and travel away from home.

[lklasing 16]

Even though I've stayed at OKW twice and SSR once, I had no idea they were actually that close to POFQ.  Very cool.  Good investigation!

[Beckers 1,136]

As the kids say, I am hashtag blessed.

TCD

I'm helping at VBS this week and one of the classes of kids decided to say "hashtag" before every sentence. Hashtag what's the craft? Hashtag can I have the glue? Hashtag thanks. Hashtag where's the glitter? Every.freaking.sentence. God bless their teachers! Thankfully I am only subjected to it for 20 mins.

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Just saw I missed an update while posting. That guy is using a selfie stick. LOL!

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/06/24/the-selfie-stick-backlash/

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

We've stayed at POFQ and loved it. Like you said its a compact resort and never seemed busy to us like POR was. We took the boats several times going to DTD and back. But I never noticed that OKW resort was that close either. I do remember that there was a sidewalk on the canal and wondering if it went to OKW. Did you notice that sidewalk?

How does the CP program work as far as the girls apartment? Is it included or do they have to pay for it? Meals? Etc?

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

The sidewalk you saw is probably the sidewalk connecting POFQ to POR. You CAN walk between those resorts.

 

I'm honestly surprised they are not connected more.

 

I'm pretty sure you can walk from OKW to DTD, and from OKW to Saratoga Springs.

 

I really wish there WAS a good sidewalk between POFQ to OKW.

 

That was one of my huge breakfast fails one morning. We were staying at POFQ and had a late breakfast reservation at OKW (Olivia's).  I royally messed up. We went to DTD to catch a boat. The boats didn't start running early enough, and by the time we realized that and took a bus, we missed breakfast. Since they don't serve lunch at Olivia's breakfast is a hard close. Rick likes breakfast late, but he wants BREAKFAST. So of course by the time we could get somewhere to eat, it was lunch.

 

But the irony is, when we were on the bus to DTD, just as we exited POFQ, we could see OKW buildings right there.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

The sidewalk you saw is probably the sidewalk connecting POFQ to POR. You CAN walk between those resorts.

I'm honestly surprised they are not connected more.

I'm pretty sure you can walk from OKW to DTD, and from OKW to Saratoga Springs.

I really wish there WAS a good sidewalk between POFQ to OKW.

That was one of my huge breakfast fails one morning. We were staying at POFQ and had a late breakfast reservation at OKW (Olivia's). I royally messed up. We went to DTD to catch a boat. The boats didn't start running early enough, and by the time we realized that and took a bus, we missed breakfast. Since they don't serve lunch at Olivia's breakfast is a hard close. Rick likes breakfast late, but he wants BREAKFAST. So of course by the time we could get somewhere to eat, it was lunch.

But the irony is, when we were on the bus to DTD, just as we exited POFQ, we could see OKW buildings right there.

Breakfast is probably my favorite meal of the day. Rick and I can hang out any time, as long as it's in the morning. Lol.

I looked on google maps and your half right. The sidewalk I was thinking about does connect POR & POFQ. and on the other side of the canal it's part of the golf course. So I was actually thinking/looking at two different side walks. I guess if I was to be technical it's a sidewalk and a cart path.