Autumn in Napa

As I'm officially a WDW CP member now (arrive on Feb 7th!) I've started compiling a list in my head already of all the things I want to take, or need to purchase.  I am going to take my car with me to Florida, no matter how crazy the idea.  Depending on who creates the map, the drive is anywhere from 42 to 48 hours drive time.  I am in the process of trying to coerce friends to go with me so I'll have a driving partner to switch off with, but my main victim may have Army stuff at the time, so I'm hoping he can get out of it.  ::fingers crossed::  In the mean time....

Some Photo's!
So I've had privilege of growing up in Napa; someplace that thousands of people travel to for vacation.  On top of that, I have to say that I absolutely love my job that I have now.  I love the people I get to work with, and you can't beat the location!

View at Sunrise

Autumn is my favorite time!

I have to say that I truly have been lucky to be able to work at such a great place.  And my co-workers at the hotel are hysterical; I really will miss them.

My advice to anyone that thinks they may ever come to Napa is to come either in the Spring or the Fall.  Summer is great, and we have FABULOUS weather in the summer I'll admit, but you can't beat the colors that pop up in October, while March/April brings out Mustard flowers in the vineyards (and also features the aptly named Mustards Festival).  Summer's are usually in the 80's and 90's, with minimal humidity.  We may not have the color changing trees like the East Coast, but we have our color changing grape vines!

*All of the above photo's were taken with with my iPhone.

so close.....

My purple folder came today!!!  The letter was dated November 11th, was signed from the recruiter who has been helping me, but funny enough still had the original "accept by" date, which was October 20th.  When I tried to sign in using the user name and password they gave me, it came back saying that too much time had gone by, blah blah blah.... Looks like Tech didn't get everything fixed yet.  :(  So I can't log in yet to choose my program dates, BUT!!!! I mean, I finally got my folder!!!  So at this moment, I am 95% happy.  YAY!

I'm sorry, what...?

So as the weeks went by and I didn't hear from Disney, I began to get really disillusioned.  Every time I checked the DisBoards I saw people getting accepted.... 3 weeks after they applied.... 5 days after they applied!! And yet as I continually checked my inbox and my spam folder, I received nothing.  I refused to call and ask, because I didn't want to seem a nuisance, and imagined them making some sort of negative notation in my file.  However, frustration finally got the better of me and on November 4th, I called up. It was getting close to registering for Spring semester, and I was going to have to make some big decisions.  I called up Recruiting and immediately laid on the charm, asking if I could just get an inkling of what my results might be.  The nice guy asked me when the last time I had received anything from them, and I said, "September 13th, the day I got my pending letter."  He put me on hold, and a few minutes later a really nice lady came on the line and said, "Hi, Amanda! So you haven't received anything from us since September?" I confirmed and she said, "well I have some good news and some bad news.  It turns out you were extended an offer, but unfortunately enough time has gone by that they rescinded the offer."  Turns out, they had accepted me back on October 4th, exactly a month ago!! I never received anything in either email or in my real mail box (I swear, I think Newman is my mailman....)  I kind of had a mini-panic attack. Here I had been waiting for months, picturing myself at DW, and now it may have slipped through.  She explained that they were going to look into it, and check to see if there was still a position available to offer me.  (I would find out later that one person makes all the decisions for cases like this, and they had to analyze how many people had accepted, and how many invites were still out).  Luckily, my recruiter was REALLY patient, as I called her every other day to check on my status, and on November 11th I got the good news that my offer had been re-extended.  I was officially a Photopass member for Spring Advantage 2011! At this moment, I'm still waiting for tech to send me back an email so I can officially accept the position and pick my arrival date.  If I don't hear anything by Thursday, I'm to call my recruiter back and she'll check into it.  But she said the position is officially mine! :)  So once again, I am waiting on an email and staring suspiciously at my mailman.....

So how did I get here...?

Really, that's a great question.  I didn't even know about the Disney College Program until my sister came home and announced she was applying.  She ended up getting through and was offered a Merchandise position for the Disneyland CP for Fall 2010 (which she sadly does not have a blog, because the stuff she has lived through down there has been interesting...)  I decided that I would much rather try for the Disney World CP, as I had never been.  There is a class I HAVE to take in the Fall of 2011 so that was out (boo, no holidays in Disney).  So as my sister spent this summer working for Disneyland, I waited anxiously for the Spring '11 apps to open up.

The Process
I had my interview on August 25th, and I actually walked away a little disappointed.  Even though I had written notes to myself on things I wanted to especially mention, I TOTALLY went off on a tangent and ended up talking about my work at Humboldt State University (duties similar to an RA, but not in charge of anyone) rather than talking about my CURRENT job in the hotel industry here in Napa, CA.  This is major, since I only applied for three roles: Concierge (which I was pretty sure I wouldn't get, but decided to dream big) Front Desk/Hospitality and Photopass.  I really really wanted the Hospitality role, as I felt I had a lot of experience in mollifying guests.  Anyways, I feel like I gave good answers, and actually didn't get any role / scenario questions that most people seem to get.  I received an email informing me I was pending on September 13th, and that I would have a decision sometime before December 10th.  Thus began one of the longest waiting periods of my life, which would be filled with frustration, disillusions, heartbreak (to be detailed) and finally, absolute excitement!

Well...

As you can see everywhere, this blog is going to (hopefully) be about my job as a Disney World Photopass photographer.  Why hopefully?  Well, because as a child, I was never very good at keeping a journal.  But with friends back home on the other side of the country, I figure there will be some harassment for me to keep this up to date.  Until January rolls around though, I may post a bit about my past adventures! :)