Become a Wilderness Explorer at Animal Kingdom!

If anyone knows me well enough, they will know I LOVE the Disney film 'Up'.  I have the film on DVD and have seen it so many times that I definitely could recite the whole film!

For anyone that has not seen 'Up', (I have no idea why you wouldn't have) here is a brief synopsis....  An old man called Mr Fredricksen wants to take his house to Paradise Falls; a place that him and his late wife always wanted to go to.  The best way to go there?  By attaching thousands of balloons to his house and flying it there of course!  This is exactly what he does and accompanied unintentionally by Russell, a wilderness explorer from tribe 54, sweat lodge 12!  They have a real adventure and meet a colourful bird who likes chocolate and a talking dog...of course!

You can imagine my excitement when I saw a tweet from Walt Disney World saying that 'Up' will finally feature in a Disney park.  Guests will be able to experience a true Wilderness Explorer adventure and navigate round the Animal Kingdom Park with field guides to complete challenges and earn special Wilderness Explorer badges.  I will definitely be taking part in this!

"The wilderness must be explored!"

Two internal flights booked!

So last night I officially booked two of my internal flights for travelling when I finish the Disneyworld internship programme!  I will be travelling for 3 and a half weeks and taking on this adventure with eight other girls who are doing the internship too, some I met at the final interview and some having spoken to through Facebook :) We are planning to travel round San Diego, LA, Las Vegas, San Francisco and New York...sounds amazing right?!  I will also be taking a flight down to North Carolina for a few days to visit family, which are the flights I booked last night.  I cannot wait to see them all again!

I always feel rather grownup booking expensive, complicated things like flights and planning all this travelling, which will include getting the North Carolina flights on my own!  Luckily my brother was at the other end of the phone last night for my last minute flight questions.

133 days....it is getting closer!

Think, Believe, Dream, Dare

An eight-year-old boy approached an old man in front of a wishing well, looked up into his eyes and asked: “I understand you’re a very wise man. I’d like to know the secret of life.”

The old man looked down at the youngster and replied: “I’ve thought a lot in my lifetime and the secret can be summed up in four words:

 The first is think: Think about the values you wish to live your life by.

The second is believe: Believe in yourself based on the thinking you’ve done about the values you’re going to live your life by.

The third is dream: Dream about the things that can be, based on your belief in yourself, and the values you’re going to live by.

The last is dare: Dare to make your dreams become reality, based on your belief in yourself and
your values.

And with that, Walt Disney said to the little boy, “Think, Believe, Dream, and Dare.”

I love this story because it truly summarizes what I believe and the route to achieving your dreams <3

All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them

So in 137 days I will be on a plane jetting off to Florida for a 10 week summer internship of working in the one and only Disneyworld Florida, followed by 3 and a half weeks of travelling around America!  It is needless to say that I am very excited and still have to pinch myself to reassure myself it is real! :)

I first discovered this amazing opportunity on New Years' Eve 2011 when I went back to London to celebrate the new year with my housemate and two of her friends.  One of her friend's told me about the amazing summer she had planned for 2012, working in Disneyworld Florida, and I knew right away that this was something I HAD to do!

Firstly, I’ll run through the application process!  Last summer I completed an online application form and submitted my CV to the YummyJobs website and had to wait patiently until October to find out whether I had got through the first stage!  The next stage was an interview in Manchester, which meant a very early start and train journey from Birmingham.  The interview day included an exciting presentation about the summer internship program and followed by group interviews!  These weren’t as bad as I thought and you just had to make sure you were heard and stood out from the other 9 people being interviewed at the same time!  After excitingly getting through this stage, I was invited to the FINAL interview in London.  I was actually pretty excited about this interview as it was held a stone’s throw from where I worked during my placement year at IBM on the Southbank!  The final interview involved another presentation about working for Disney and then a one-on-one interview.  Although originally thinking I had done well in the interview, after I got home I got into the mode of assessing everything I had said and how I could have answered the questions better - never a good state of mind to get in to!  So after a 10 day wait, which seemed three times that long, whilst I was on a train to Leeds for my friend’s birthday party, I got an email to say I had got the job!  I would be starting on the 3rd June working in Merchandise.  Absolutely ecstatic does not even begin to cover it!! I am officially off to the happiest place on Earth; Disneyworld!!