Dead Men Tell No Tales...

...Okay, so technically I'm not dead, but my blogging spirit/free time have been dead, so that's why it's been so long since I've update this. A lot has happened over the weeks that I've been MIA, and I'm going to catch you up on all of it. So, here goes nothing.

First things first: I am no longer planning on applying for the Fall 2010 Disney College Program.

Now, don't get crazy just yet. I'm still planning on doing the college program in the future, but I'm just not going to be able to do it in the fall, and here's why.

So, basically, at my university you have to have two years of a language (4 semesters) to get a B.A. Since I'm a History Teaching major, I'm a part of this group. So I've been taking Latin (I'm in my second semester now), and I'm planning on finishing up my language requirements with this language. Here's the catch, though--the four semesters (1010, 1020, 2010, and 2020) are only taught in fall, spring, fall spring, respectively. Meaning if I did the CP this fall, I would have to wait an entire year before I could take the 2010 class. Granted, Latin is no Mandarin Chinese, but I still don't think I'd be comfortable taking such high a course in the language without having brushed up my Latin skills in a year and a half. This is one of my reasons.

The other is the oh-so-lovely-M-word: Money. My car is getting a bit run down, and in the near future I'm going to need to buy a new one. The thing is, I'm not sure how far into the future that will be. But, basically, I don't want to be shipping off the California for four months with a new car when I'm still getting the hang of car payments and how to reconfigure my spending mindset.

There are a few other reasons (such as, if I wait until the Fall 2011 CP, I'll be 21 and much more comfortable), but the two above are the gist of it. I'm a bit sad about it, and there's no telling if I'll spontaneously change my mind and apply. But for right now, my plan is not to apply.

That's not to say I won't still be updating this blog, because I still plan to. This is just another step in my journey to the Disney College Program, and I intend to share all of those steps with you, even the bad ones. And of course, there will be other Disney-related things which I will post, so don't fear: I will be posting!

Anyway, that's all for now. Just thought I'd post this since it was something I needed to say to you all. Thank you for reading my blog, and I hope that you will stay with me as I continue my DCP adventure.

Dreams and Wishes,
Bayley.

I'm the Great Stone Dragon! Good mornin'!

Geez, guys, sorry for falling off the face of the earth. School has been sort of crazy the past few weeks, and between essays and tests and research papers, I've been a wee bit busy. But with school winding down and the following break, I should be updating more frequently.

I still have the unfinished draft of my trip report sitting here, so hopefully I'll be finishing that real soon. The reason its taking so long is because its very picture-heavy, and blogger isn't especially great at allowing you to upload your pictures.

I can't believe that its just over a month until we can apply. Craziness! I'm still trying work things out to see if it's even a plausible possibility for me. I've got to figure out my work situation, if I'll be making car payments, how it will affect my school status and classes I need to take. It's a lot of stuff I don't really want to think about yet, so I'm probably going to just apply and see if I even get in before worrying about all the other stuff.

So, anyway, just wanted to let you all know I'm not dead, and hopefully I'll be updating more soon. :) In the meantime, have a splendiferous day!

Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas...

Hey guys! I'm finally doing the trip report that I've been meaning to get around to. Sorry if this post ends up being kind of long. There's just so much I could say about a trip to Disneyland!

Well, I won't waste time. Let's get to it!



My latest Disneyland trip was from October 13-15. Prior to this trip, I hadn't been to the resort since August 2008, and even though it was just over a year, let me tell you, it was too long! I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go when I did. I had never been to the parks before at Halloweentime, and I was anxiously looking forward to the offerings I would find, such as Haunted Mansion Holiday, Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy, and Halloween Screams. And let me tell you, I was not disappointed!

I was traveling with two of my sisters. We left on Sunday, October 11, with the intent of taking two days of travel time on our way to Anaheim. From where we live in Utah (near Salt Lake City) it takes about ten hours to drive to Los Angeles. Since we had the time, we figured we would take it slow and take the two days. We drove to Mesquite, NV the first day. For those of you who don't know where that is, it's about an hour-hour and a half out of Las Vegas. I've been there several times, both as a pit-stop to California and for my sister's softball tournaments, but I never thought it was so dead before. I don't know if it was the economy or the fact that it was Sunday or what, but it felt like a ghost town! Not to mention the casino in the lobby was full of elderly folks...once again, I don't know if that was just because it was Sunday, or if it is always like that. Well, I guess if they're still in business, people must be coming, right? We stayed at the Casablanca, which sadly is probably the nicest hotel in Mesquite, despite the fact that it wasn't the most posh hotel ever. There were, however, these very exciting palm tree lamps in the hotel room!



We made a trip out to Quizno's for dinner that night, then spent the rest of the evening just chilling in the hotel room. Footloose was on! Also, they had this really great channel that showed shows from the 80s like Alf and The Jeffersons! I seriously love the 80s, so I loved this channel. Sadly I can't remember what is was called, but I'm pretty sure they don't offer it where I live. Quite sad, but ah well.

The next day we stopped at Burger King to pick up a quick breakfast (gotta love those French Toast Sticks!) and then we headed out on the road. We took our time since we couldn't check into our hotel until 3:00. We stopped in Barstow for gas, but other than that we didn't take any breaks. We arrived in Anaheim sometime between three and four. It was overcast, but it hadn't rained yet. We passed the Anaheim Gardenwalk on our way in, which was the first time I had really taken notice where it was! Good to know for future reference.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn on Ball Rd behind the resort. It was a very nice hotel, and seemed to have been recently remodeled, which was nice. It was within short walking distance of the parks, and was very close to Downtown Disney especially. The only setbacks were that they did not have continental breakfast so we had to feed ourselves every morning. Also, since it's sort of behind the resort, there wasn't a lot of people traffic, which I know sounds like a weird complaint, but I felt like it took me out of "it" a little bit. I like staying on Harbor Blvd where you are constantly surrounded by people bustling between hotels and parks and where you can see the Matterhorn out of your hotel room window...but that's just me! I kind of like random little things like that.

Anyway, after we checked in, we went to Mimi's on Harbor for lunch/dinner (Dunch? Linner?) After that, we went to Downtown Disney to do some shopping and absorb some atmosphere. We stopped at the Lego Store, which was awesome! In case you don't know, I love Legos! It's kind of a 'spensive hobby, though, so I didn't buy any new sets. I wanted to save my money for Disney souvenirs I could only get in the parks. :)

They had the Indiana Jones sets too! But not the Temple of Doom, which is the coolest own. Which, by the way, I do not own, because like I said, Legos are an expensive hobby, and if I recall correctly the Temple of Doom set is around $80. Yeesh! Though I did drop $60 for the X-wing but...ahem...that's a different story.

I did get a chance to pose with Lego Darth Vader though!

On down Downtown Disney, we visited the World of Disney store!


Me with one of my favorite villains!

I've always wanted to buy one of these models, but they are horrendously expensive. Ah well. Someday!

After checking out the scope of merch in WoD, we headed back to our hotel. With promises of Disneyland magic on the horizon, we went to sleep!

Well, I'm going to wrap up this post here and continue in a new post since this is already so long. I don't want to overwhelm you...and the click 'n' drag pictures thing is already getting a little tedious. So that does it for days one and two! Stay tuned for the actual days in DISNEYLAND!

After all, it's a step in the right direction!

So I met with my academic advisor and several very exciting things happened! First of all, I'm finally declared. Huzzah! No more piddling around undecided! Now let's just hope that I stick to this decision. He strongly encouraged me to double-major though, which was also exciting because that's pushing me more towards Music or Theater. Now I just have to figure out the rest. Yeah.

Also, I asked him about the Disney College Program, and he didn't think I was completely ridiculous! In fact, he mentioned another student had asked him about it recently. It's great to know that the University isn't one of those schools that thinks the CP is a waste of time. I was concerned about that since as far as I know the campus reps don't come here, and it's one of the largest schools in the state. But no worries! He also gave me the contact information for the career services person who I would need to talk to about doing some kind of coursework while at the CP in order to get credit. He said he was pretty sure it is upper division credit, too, which is awesome!

It's nice to have that concern out of the way. Now the next step I need to take is....APPLYING?!?!?! Crazy, yes. But that's still two months off, isn't it. Sigh.

In the meantime, I'll continue to gather information and take notes for myself. The most helpful stuff I'll post on here, while the stuff that is a little bit more focused on me personally I'll write in my CP journal (which I still need to make). I'm still working on that trip report, and I seriously hope to get it done soon. I've got some awesome pictures!

I'm also going to do a little spot called the "Training Tidbit", where I spout some random Disney/Disneyland knowledge at you that will hopefully be interesting and educational. I'm sort of a Disney buff, but I know a lot of you are, too, but hopefully what I post will be something you haven't heard before.

Well, that'll do it for now. Only two months and some-odd days until application! This is going to be hard waiting...

Hang on to your hats 'n' glasses!

Ahhhh! So I made my first real step towards the College Program today! Mostly everything I've done so far has been speculative stuff, but now I'm actually putting the wheels in motion! What is it that I did, you ask? Well, I scheduled an appointment to meet with my adviser!

I know I shouldn't be nervous, because the main focus of the meeting will be what classes I will need to be taking in the next few years. But I have absolutely know idea how they're going to respond when I bring up my plan to apply for the Disney College Program, especially when it really doesn't have anything to do with my major!

Okay, it isn't completely unrelated. And after all, isn't any work experience good experience? I'm just nervous since I don't know anyone from my school who has done the CP so I really have no idea if it is well accepted or not. I did some sleuthing and I know that my school give credit for doing it, but as far as I know, the recruiters never come give presentations here, and that worries me since my school is one of the biggest in the state!

I'm sure I'm getting myself worked up about nothing, but you never know...well, I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes on Thursday! I'm just so excited for things to actually be moving towards the CP. Hopefully all goes well!

Wish me luck! :)

This is Halloween, this is Halloween...

Hey guys! Happy Monday! I'm so glad today is over. Why is it that the busiest day of the week has to be the first day of the week? No gentle easing here, that's for sure! Anyway, I'm still composing the Trip Report. It's a lot more work than I was expecting! But still, I'm working through it. I just won't have it up as soon as I had hoped, but hopefully when it is posted, it will be the awesomest trip report ever!!

Anyway, enough about that. As promised, I've got pictures of my awesome Halloween costume as Peter Pan! While this costume wasn't Disney-Peter specific, I figured since it was in the spirit of fun, like this blog, and that it was somewhat Disney related, that I would post these. So enjoy!


Don't you just love my cardboard sword??? Anyway, I thought I'd give a few details on the construction of this outfit, which was extremely easy and extremely cheap. No sewing was involved at all! Here's all I had to get.

-I found forest green tights at a local costume shop. If you can't find green tights themselves, just get a white pair and dye them to the color of your heart's content!
-I got the pants at Ross for five dollars. They were originally way too long for me, but since I was planning on cutting them, it didn't matter anyway. Two easy snips later, I had my leggings. Then I got to pull the threads to make them look frayed. Destroying clothes on purpose is fun!
-Now this is the best part: the shirt is a pillowcase! All I had to do was cut use a ruler to cut an even V-neck in the front, then cut arm holes at the sides. Easy peasy!
-The belt and shoes I already owned. Using the brown belt to cinch up the pillowcase really helped it look more like a shirt. The belt really pulled the outfit together!
-The makeup I used was Kelly Green Covergirl eyeshadow, and I also used face glitter, which you can't really see in this picture. In retrospect I wish I had gone a little bit louder with the make-up, but I'm still happy with how it came out.
-The cuffs on my wrists were just left-over bits of pants that I had.
-The cardboard sword was easy! I just cut a sword shape out of standard brown cardboard and tucked it into my belt.

The only thing I feel like I could have used was a hat, but I think it was fine without it. If I had had more time to plan, I probably would have done my hair different, as well. But all in all, I really love how this all came together--it was better than I had hoped! Halloween is such a fun holiday, and I hope you all had as much fun as I did!

Now that it's November, it means that I am even closer to the opening of applications for Fall 2010! Crazy! But really it couldn't get here soon enough, even though I still have a lot to do to prepare. I still haven't made my little journal yet!

Well, I had better head to bed to get my beauty sleep. Nothing like a good night's rest to keep you running! See you soon!

Be sure to bring your DEATH certificate...

...and now you can!

Visit www.yourdeathcertificate.com! On this awesome website you can custom-make your very own death certificate. Make them for your family, friends, or anyone who loves Disney! They'll be sure to get a chuckle out of it. I sure did!

Just something random I stumbled upon and thought I would share with you all! Now on to the trip report!

Happy (belated) Halloween!

There be squalls ahead...

So Pirates of the Caribbean has always been one of my favorite attractions and Disneyland--if not my very favorite--yet on my last trip, as I was reciting the Talking Skull's spiel along with him, I realized I had no idea what a "squall" was! So I looked it up! Apparently, it means a loud, harsh cry, like a scream. I find that pretty funny since the next thing that happens after you pass the skull is your boat going down a slide in which people scream. Anyway, I just thought I'd share that completely random bit of information with you!

So this past week has been completely crazy for me, so I haven't had much development in the way of Disney, but I finished an essay that's been hanging over my head today (finally!) and have most of my studying for my midterm on Friday done, so I will hopefully get some of this stuff up soon! Some upcoming posts will include:

- Photo trip report from my last trip to Disneyland Resort, which took place from October 13-15.
- The grand making of my personal DLRCP notebook!
- Halloween pictures with me as Peter Pan. :D I'm SO excited for Halloween!
- A potpourri of random information that I've gathered from various boards/blogs/etc. I want this blog to help me just as much as it helps you!

Also, for all you Pixar fans out there, keep in mind that Up comes out on DVD/Blu-Ray two weeks from yesterday: Nov 10! I know I'll be heading to Best Buy day-of to buy my copy. How about you?

I think that's about all for now. I want to conclude with a little bit about my last trip. It was my first time going during Halloweentime at Disneyland, and I must say, it is an absolutely fabulous time to go to the resort! The crowds were light, the layovers on Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain were well done, the decorations were fun, and Halloween Screams was a fantastic show! More details will come with the official post, which I can hopefully post sometime tomorrow. Anyway, I hope you are all having a wonderful day!

Life, Love, Disney.

Welcome, foolish mortals...

...to Training Ears, the blog of a Disneyland College Program Fall 2010 hopeful!

I'm Bayley, said CP hopeful. If you're reading this, you either know me personally (hey there!) or you are familiar with the Disney College Program and want to learn more about it! Well, we are in the same boat here.

Let me start with a little about myself. I'm currently a sophomore--almost a junior--at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. I'm 19, and I'm a History Teaching major/? minor. The question mark could mean many things: theater? Music? English? I'm not sure yet. Perhaps something along the lines of Parks, Recreation and Tourism depending on how the DCP goes!

Which brings me to the entire reason why I'm starting this blog: the Disney College Program. Like I said, I'm a Fall 2010 hopeful, and anxiously awaiting for the opening of applications in January. As of right now, I'm thinking my top three roles will be Attractions, Merchandise, and Guest Relations, but I'm planning on checking off just about everything on the application. I'll be happy with wherever they put me as long as I'm at the Disneyland Resort!

I've been a long-time fan of Disney. I grew up on the animated films, and went to Disneyland a handful of times as a kid. Then when I was 14, I went again, and fell in love with it all over again. I was fascinated by such a place; the atmosphere, the magic, the pure happiness there was amazing. As years went by and I returned to the Disneyland Resort, I discovered that my love for it only became greater. I was reading books, watching videos, listening to soundtracks and podcasts, discussing it with friends, and even integrating it into my school work with different assignments. I was lucky enough to once write a ten-page research paper on Disneyland and let me tell you, I only scratched the surface. Even now, after all the Disney knowledge I've consumed, I'm finding new things every day, and like Walt said, "Disneyland will never be completed." There will always be new things for me to learn and experience regarding Disneyland, and I feel like the Disney College Program is a truly awesome way for me to immerse myself in the Disney experience.

One of the most frequent questions interviewees for the CP get asked in their interviews is, "Why do you want to do the program?" Well, the reasons are many for me. First of all, I love people. Being around people is really therapeutic to me, and I love interacting with others. I enjoy talking to others and learning about them, and I enjoy being in service position. I love the idea that by even small means, I have the ability to make someone's day better. It's a great feeling when you realize something you've done has made someone smile. Also, I think the many different interactions and situations I would face in the CP would greatly help me with my career choice. The classroom is an unpredictable environment, and you never know where a discussion might go. The experiences I would encounter in the CP would expose me to a myriad of situations and personalities that will doubtlessly help me as a teacher. There would be countless other skills I would gather from this experience as well. I would also get to meet lots of people from all over the world who I wouldn't have a chance to meet otherwise. How can you pass an opportunity like that up? And most of all, as I said above, I just love Disney and Disneyland. Everything that is in it and what is stands for means so much to me, and I know that working for the Disneyland Resort would be a meaningful and special experience.

So there's a little bit about me and why I want to do the Disney College Program. As time goes by, I will be posting my experiences, tips, and thoughts in this journal. Hopefully you will find it entertaining and informative! And hopefully in a few months I will be able to change this from a College Program hopeful's blog to a College Program participant's blog! Hope to see you there!