My original application had been lost as the Melbourne offices of STB had been closed, unbeknown to me. Luckily I had grown tired of waiting so I decided to e-mail Karina at STB who informed me of the closure and asked me to resend my applications so she could book me into my interview in the next few days. I stupidly didn't make any copies of my documents (I know what an idiot!) so I had to run across Melbourne getting various forms signed (with little help from my western melbourne uni who will remain nameless). So I eventually had my interview which went great and was told that I would be getting a skype interview with Disney in Orlando sometime in the next week. Six weeks later I finally got that interview. A warning for anyone interested in applying to the WDW ICP these interviews are pretty early, mine was at 7am and after 6 weeks of uni break I wasn't really a morning person. My interview was with a lovely woman named Jeni and we spoke for about 20 mins about why I was interested in the program and what roles I was interested in doing. I mentioned that I was interested in becoming a character performer much to her pleasure. She asked me to measure myself, which I did and said she would get back to me after I sent the measurements to her. So yesterday afternoon during a unexciting gender studies class at school I received an email congratulating me being accepted for a position in the program. I could not contain my excitement, it had been a long road coming!
For those of you who are interested I was given the role of Character Performer for six months then I would move into Operations for the final six months. Which works out perfect as I wanted to experience various roles and after reading countless blogs and watching endless YouTube videos I knew this was what I wanted to do. I start on January 7th, 2012 so in roughly 5 months I'll be working for the mouse in Florida.
At the moment I'm both super excited but also really nervous as a year away from all my loved ones is a bit daunting, but hey I'm going to be working at FREAKING DISNEY WORLD!!! I've travelled around the world so it's not culturally daunting but it's still scary moving in with strangers for a whole year thousands of kilometers away from anyone you know.
I decided to create this blog to document an Aussies experience in the ICP. While there were heaps from the UK and USA none really gave an Australians perspective. I hope to share with you the ups and downs of the programs and hopefully interact with you the reader by reading your comments and answering any questions that you may have. I have a twitter which you can follow which I will post in my info.
Next step for me is getting my police check sorted. I'm traveling to New York on Tuesday then when I get back i'll start sorting visa and flights.
So I hope you join me for this exciting adventure to the most magical place on earth.
