Happy Easter everyone! It’s been awhile, but it’s time for part 2 of my Disney Quest! So last time, I covered everything that led to me getting accepted into the Disney College Program. NOW we are getting to the real nitty gritty part of the program!
THAT’S RIGHT. Now I’m going to tell you all about the wonderful, high school drama filled, useless information bearing Disney College Program Facebook pages! You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy, but just as Luke found Han and Chewie at the Mos Eisley Cantina, I too managed to find some genuinely good guys. Much less hairy, and Harrison Ford-y though.
The Facebook page, for those that don’t know, was originally meant for people that got accepted into the program to get help with questions, geek out over being accepted, and most importantly, find potential roommates. And how did people find roommates? The infamous Roommate Survey which has SO many questions. How many you ask? Behold.
Background:
Name:
Gender:
Relationship Status:
Orientation:
Birthday/Age:
Current location:
Hometown:
School:
Major:
Allergies:
Siblings:
Disney College Program Details:
WDW or DL? Walt Disney World, Orlando
Arrival Date:
Flying or driving?
Your Role:
Wellness or Non-Wellness?
How many people do you want to live with?
Housing complex:
Alumni:
Lifestyle:
Do you party? How often?
Do you smoke?
Do you drink?
Can you cook?
What does your bedroom usually look like?
Room hot or cold?
Stay in or go out?:
What do you like to do on days off?
Do you work out a lot?
Personality:
One good quality:
One bad quality:
Outgoing or quiet?
Hangout with people or keep to yourself?
What do you want in a roommate?
Are you messy or organized?
Sharing Policies:
Do you like having people over a lot?
Favorite thing to do:
Favorite music:
Favorite TV shows:
Favorite movies:
Favorite food:
Favorite candy:
Favorite drink:
Favorite color:
Misc. Disney Info…
Favorite character:
Favorite movie:
Favorite park:
Favorite ride:
At this point you’re probably thinking, “Jesus why did I read all that” or “What’s the importance of half of those questions?” Are you REALLY going to not want to room with someone if their favorite color is purple? If you are, then you have some serious issues…. PURPLE IS AWESOME DUMBASS. I mean… what. Don’t get me wrong, there are some important questions on there like “Do you smoke,” “Would you prefer the room hot or cold,” “Will you have a car (for me to mooch off)?” etc. but the majority of the survey is just useless info that really shouldn’t affect whether or not you want to room with someone. I’m sure for some of the divas on the page it did, but for me it really didn’t matter.
That being said, recently accepted me was in full Disney mode and was like “ERMAHGERD DIDNEY MUST MAKE FRIENDS THAT WILL LAST LIFE TIME GIMME DAT F***ING SURVEY.” I filled it out the day after I got accepted in the program and I was checking that page obsessively to read the surveys of other guys. Finding guys to room with was surprisingly difficult. Not because I was picky, but just because there were only like 12 guys total accepted into the program. There wasn’t much that I was looking for in a roommate. The important things to me were:
- Had to be over 21 – My ass was getting MC Hammered after a stressful day of work whether or not I was in a wellness or non-wellness room. Might as well had legal drinking age roomies right?
- Had to be OK with having fun in the room. Again, if I couldn’t unwind after work, heads were going to roll.
- If you were a slob… we weren’t going to have a good time.
- No smokers
That was it. Nothing else mattered. They could have a bright pink afro, worship Satan, and think Epcot was the best park. As long as they were old like me, had fun, were relatively clean, and didn’t smoke, we would get along. A few days after posting my roommate survey I found my first roommate: Josh.
Luckily, Josh was almost as much of a nerd as me, liked rock and metal, and had a fondness of alcohol like yours truly. I was definitely pumped about rooming with him. He ended up getting assigned to Parade and Audience Control at Magic Kingdom. We spent the next week or so getting to know each other knowing that the roommate situation was going to work out just fine. Then, in one of my daily searches for roommate I found the next character: Joe Bass aka William Bass aka I have no idea why he goes by Joe, I still don’t know and don’t really intend to ask any time soon.
Joe, seemed like a total clone of myself: nerdy, social, total rocker, enjoyed social outings etc. so it felt like he was going to be another great addition to our group. Little did I know that Joe is actually far nerdier than me. Joe, hilariously was assigned to work at The Little Mermaid ride in Magic Kingdom. We all agreed that we wanted four roommates so we searched long and hard for our last roommate. It actually took awhile to find the last guy. Josh, however, texted Joe and I saying he thinks he found our fourth nerd. We creeped on this guy’s FB page, and eventually accepted that this was going to be our fourth guy: Brandon.
Brandon, actually preferred to go by Sam, surprised me. I thought I was nerdy, I thought JOE was nerdier… but this guy… this guy just blew us all out of the water in the absolute best way possible. He fit into our little group perfectly. Sam similarly to me was a custodian, but he was assigned to Pop Century Hotel.
And thus, the Fellowship of the Jedi was formed. No, we didn’t call ourselves that in public (at least I didn’t), but we all shared a love for Lord Of The Rings and Star Wars so the name kind of went together. Best part of the group? Josh, Joe, and Sam all had cars during the program making them my best drivers… err I mean… friends! Yes… friends.
Sadly, tragedy struck. When we got the email to register roommates, Disney only allowed us to link with two other people. Meaning one of us was going to be left out. The decision was simple: Fight Club to the death. RIP Joe…
Just kidding, we decided to split half and half. I roomed with Joe and Josh and Sam roomed together. It actually turned out OK; our apartments ended up being literally across the street from each other. The other roommates I got paired with Mark, Ben, and Kane ended up being great guys anyways. There were two other roommates I had… but I won’t go into too much detail with them *eye twitch.*
But really, the program would not have been the same without my fellowship guys. The shenanigans we got into during the program were some that I will never forget. One of the first that comes to mind is our first journey to Epcot as a Fellowship. While walking through the World Showcase, declaring how Canada sucked, we came across the Meet & Greet. Being the Disney nerds we are, we hopped in the surprisingly short line, chatted with Alice about Tea, and then Josh….. Um… well Josh commented on how beautiful Alice was. It was at this point that we had to remind Josh that Alice was a child. Yeah we never met her again.
We had so many shenanigans while in Disney both in and out the parks. Phrases like “Thanks Obama,” and “You done Dorf’d” became everyday phrases in all of our vocabularies. There were so many inside jokes between us it was difficult to count. However, there is one memory which I will always hold in higher regard than any other memory with my Fellowship: Taco Tuesdays.
My mouth is watering just from thinking about it. Every Tuesday, and I mean EVERY Tuesday (minus a rare few), some or all of our Fellowship would travel to a glorious establishment known simply as Tijuana Flats. What’s Tijuana Flats you ask? It’s a glorious taco establishment that has an entire bar dedicated to hot sauces, has a variety of toppings and types of tacos and has some of THE. BEST. QUESO. EVER. Honestly, Disney was great, but I miss Tijuana Flats more than I miss the parks. That’s how much of a control this place has over me. Every Tuesday we’d enjoy tacos, torture ourselves with painfully hot sauces and just BS for a good few hours. It’s honestly some of the best bro bonding I’ve ever had and I honestly can’t wait to go back again. I don’t know when it’ll be, but I will return to Tijuana Flats. I needs the prrrrecioussssss.
If you ever read Disney College Program blogs or watch video journals about it, almost every one of them will comment on how you’ll make friends that’ll last a lifetime. As sappy as it is, it really is true. I talk to these three guys literally everyday and we never skipped a beat once we all went our separate ways during the program. Yes they may be nerds, but they’re my nerds and my college program wouldn’t have been the same without them!
Well, there’s Part 2 for you! Part 3 I’ll finally dive into actually working during the program (Yes… I actually did work from time to time). I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it! I can never talk enough about Disney.
The Magical World of Dids 