Hotel days and Moving into Housing

Hotel Days

Once we had checked into our hotel, we headed in search of our rooms. When we came out of the lift we were greeted with a welcome team of people from our arrival group who had already arrived which was lovely. After dropping our bags off in our room, we headed on out for food and where did we go for our first meal in America? McDonald's, yes you are quite right!

The following day we decided to do some shopping, as our hotel offered a free shuttle to the Orlando Premium Outlets...who could say no hey? When we arrived we were randomly greeted with a red carpet to step onto, as we made our way into Tommy Hillfiger (the sponsor of the free shuttle). We grabbed some food at the food hall then split up to go shopping. 

Shopping & Food time!

My lovely new work shoes!

I went on the hunt for some shoes which were suitable for work and met the required guidelines for the 'Disney Look'. I experienced some amazing customer service at the shop called Aerosoles, and got my pair of work shoes there, the woman serving me knew exactly which shoes Disney would accept and provided me with options to try on. There was one pair I loved style wise, but after some thought I had to go with the not so attractive but comfortable and practical shoes. Tough life.


The taxi that took us back to our hotel after shopping had a place for you to charge your phone...how cool! England needs to catch up with America on this. We then spent the afternoon at our hotel pool, chilling, relaxing and making the most of our freedom and the Floridian sun. Bliss.

Pool Time

In the evening we headed to Downtown Disney, or Downton as some of us would accidentally say #BritishProblems. We ate at Planet Hollywood, and my goodness was it pricey, but hey the food was good, the company was good and it was a cool place to spend our first night so no complaining from me. I also had my first alcoholic drink in America woop woop for being over 21! I had to go for the cocktail called 'Princess Cocktail' of course ;). It was really cool wondering around Downtown Disney, it has changed so so much since my last visits but there is so much to see and do there, I'm so grateful I am here for the year to hopefully go and explore as much as I can of it.

Moving In Day - Plain Sailing or Plain Failing?

Ah at last it was time to MOVE INTO HOUSING!!!! Alot of us were full of mixed emotions but all eager to find out, where we will be living and with who.

The taxi we had ordered from the hotel to housing didn't turn up on time, and when it did, it couldn't fit all 7 of us and our suitcases (even though we had given ample warning of how much space we required) but alas the solution was found and two taxis later we were dropped off just outside of Vista. 

Checking into housing was pretty straight forward, we went to a desk where they informed you of your apartment complex, how many people you would be living with and how many bedrooms* e.t.c. then we got our photo taken which would be used for our housing ID, the card printed within a few seconds then voila you went back outside to collect your bags and if you weren't living in Vista you got the luxury of a coach to take you to your housing. Ace.

*For those interested I got given Chatham Square, 3 bed 6 Person (although we only have 5 living here at the mo 2 Mexicans 2 British and 1 Norwegian). I was overjoyed as 1) No bunk beds and 2) this was second on my preference list...yippee! I struck Gold!

Checking into housing!

Well, we arrived at Chatham, had our bags taken off the coach, then that was it. Time to go hunt down my building. I had no clue how to find my building, I wondered round and round the complex, in the heat, dragging my 23KG big case and my hand luggage case which at this point was around 7KG and my handbag on my shoulder, I was not a pretty sight. When I had almost admitted defeat I bumped into a groundsman who whilst wasn't sure where my apartment was exactly had informed me I would be on the 3rd floor and pointed me to the rough area of my building. But to cut a long story short, I found my building knocked on my front door and was greeted by my Mexican and Norwegian flatmates. 

My new home <3!

After resting and taking pictures of the apartment whilst it was empty, it was coming up to the time I had arranged to meet up with my arrival group to go to our first Walmart shop (A Disney program Rite of Passage). BUT drama unfolded, I had decided it would be a good idea to take my big case with me to Walmart so I could just wheel my case with all my shopping inside...genius! Except, when I went to open my suitcase the combination padlock decided to not work. Fantastic. Panic ensued, but after a phone call to the front desk of our complex a maintenance man came quickly to my rescue and cut open the padlock. I quite literally dumped everything out of my case onto the floor and ran to my bus stop with my now empty case. I should put this into context, at this point we had no internet, no means to communicate with one another and we had set a time for us to meet, so I had no way to inform my group that I might be late.  How did people survive before mobile phones? But it turned out I actually ended up being early and arrived at Walmart roughly an hour before my arrival group. I made sure to make the most of the free wifi Walmart had to offer to message friends and family back home which helped pass the time whilst I waited. 

Once everyone arrived we made our way through the giant Walmart store collecting the bare essentials such as bedding, towels and some food to start with.

In the evening I met up with the lovely Holly and Jennifer who started their program in March. I met Holly during the application stage at Pre-Screen and Face-to-Face Interviews so it was nice arriving here in Orlando having a familiar friendly face to greet me and I also got to meet Jen for the first time who is also super super lovely :) They both made me feel so welcome and helped calm my moving in day jitters!