Disney College Program: To Extend or Not to Extend? That is the question.

This last week Disney College Program extensions became available. For 5 days, the system allowed the Fall and Fall Advantage participants to apply for an extension. This could include an extension for your current role, or a possible transfer to another role. And you have to pay another program fee of $240. (This money goes towards the transportation and events provided while you’re in your program.)

Let’s discuss the reasons you might want to extend:
#1- You are still working on your college degree but want to take another semester off to continue to work at Disney.
#2- You are enjoying your time at Disney, but you aren’t sure if a permanent move is right for you.
#3- You want to move here permanently, but you’re not sure if you’ll be able to get on Part Time or Full Time.

Let’s discuss the reasons extending might not be for you:
#1- You want to make a permanent move to Disney and you’re tired of earning $10/hour.
#2- You want to stay at Disney and you want to be able to start earning your seniority and other perks of statused employment at the company.
#3- You hope to get a performer contract at Disney
#4- You want to go home or somewhere else.

For us, we won’t be extending. We want to stay here long term. We want to be able to audition for parts in shows and not have our program get in the way. We want to be able to apply for jobs and not have our program get in the way. Instead, we will be using Transfer Genie in November to request a transfer to full or part time roles (assuming we don’t get other offers we’re waiting to hear about).

Please make sure you talk to your leaders and discuss your future options! Cultivate relationships with your colleagues and build a network of people who can cheer you on and advise you as you start your Disney career journey!

7th October 2018 0

Happily Budgeting Series: Shopping Apps that Save You Money

This is the first post in my “Happily Budgeting Series”. There was such a great response to my Disney College Program Series: How to Save Money on the DCP post that I thought I would create a whole series about saving money. I’m calling it “Happily Budgeting” because I think it is absolutely possible to be happy while staying on a budget. So often that word BUDGET gets a bad wrap. It makes you think you have to do without anything fun or enjoyable or positive in any way.

But I submit, and will hopefully prove in every edition of this series, that you can be happy, have fun AND budget! Today, we’re going to talk about Shopping Apps that Save You Money!

#1- Ibotta app

If you haven’t tried this app, you need to! You’re already going to be buying groceries, so why not make a little extra? You get “cash back” for certain purchases (verified with a receipt you scan into the app) as well as for completing certain challenges within the app. Then you can redeem your cash back via Venmo (this is my new favorite method because it’s actually cash right into my bank account) or various gift cards. You can also get bonus cash back by inviting your friends to join in the savings fun. I’ve earned almost $300 by using this app!

You can use Ibotta to earn cash back not only in stores, but also while shopping online at Amazon, Apple, Hotels.com and MANY others!

***Join by following this link https://ibotta.com/r/hskqwnc or download the app and put in my referral code hskqwnc. The app is available for android and iOS users. By following my referral link or using my code, you’ll get a $10 bonus when you redeem your first offer!***

#2- Shopkick app
I don’t find this one to be as lucrative as Ibotta, but it’s good for an extra $25-50. And that could cover a meal or souvenir at Disney! Shopkick is still evolving and you can use it similarly to Ibotta or you can use your phone and scan items in the store to earn “kicks”. The nice thing about Shopkick is that you can redeem your kicks for a Disney Gift Card! You’ll get an email with a digital code that you can use to pay for your trip or to pay for things on your vacation. Invite Friends and you each earn 250 kicks!

Today I went to Target to grocery shop and I earned 340 Kicks just from scanning items on the list! I earned an extra 175 when I bought Rice Krispies. And just like Ibotta, you can earn by shopping in stores or online! Be sure and take a look at all of the ways you can earn your way to gift cards!

***Try Shopkick and we’ll both get points toward a free gift card! 😀 Use code GIFT503676 or download http://getsk.co/gift503676

#3- Cartwheel by Target
This is part of the Target app. You can look at the App, but you can also search through specific products you can save on. Just add the products to your Cartwheel and then make sure to scan your Cartwheel barcode at checkout! Over the course of a few years, I’ve saved quite a bit just by checking to see if any items I need are on the cartwheel app.

#4- Specific Store Apps
Many stores have their own apps, like Target, that help you save money. Publix, Smiths, Kroger, Michaels, JoAnns…the list goes on. They all offer special coupons and sometimes freebies through their app! Find the ones you visit most!

I love to see my savings growing every time I use the apps! These apps really do make budgeting fun for me. On my single trip to Target today, I saved/earned over $10. In less than an hour. And I still got everything that I needed, I just paid a little bit less. And every little bit adds up!

Does anyone else have a money saving app that they love? I’m always looking for new ones to try! Leave a Comment!

24th September 2018 0

Halloween Arrives at Disney World

Halloween came a month ago to Disney World. The first Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) was August 17th! How crazy is that! And it was sold out! Halloween is so much fun at Disney World, and Magic Kingdom dresses up especially nicely for the season.

We haven’t been to the party quite yet, but we plan to. It’s been a crazy month here with interviews and auditions and work schedules and life. We can’t wait for a fun-filled evening at the Magic Kingdom.

But until we get to the party, I thought I’d take a little trip to Epcot, which isn’t the spookiest park, and see what they had in terms of Halloween merchandise. They had PLENTY!

Who doesn’t want a little Oogie Boogie hanging around with them?

This shirt speaks to my soul.

These shirts are quite popular. I usually see a few of these a day on guests in the parks.

The king of Halloween is everywhere this time of year!

Enjoy these random videos as well.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, as far as Halloween merchandise goes. And this doesn’t even count all of the exclusive MNSSHP Merchandise or any of the Passholder exclusive Merchandise! Disney definitely knows how to help us celebrate holidays!

Stay tuned for our visit to the party! We’re hoping that will be next weekend!

21st September 2018 0

Trip #3 to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival

The drinking Chocolate was SO RICH! It needed Whipped Cream, though in fairness, I feel like a lot of things need whipped cream, or MORE whipped cream. It’s my Leslie Knope side. This is definitely shareable! I don’t know if anyone could chug a whole cup of this.

The Grilled Tuna was AMAZING!!! I wanted to eat like 4 plates of this! The tuna was so flavorful and tender and fresh and I will be getting it again. I especially loved the wasabi cream sauce. Yum! Get this at the Hawaii Booth!

Adam also tried the Spam Hash at the Hawaii booth. He ate it. He said it was fine. He wished that the potatoes had been crispier.

We revisited the Creme Brulee with raspberry preserves in France and Adam treated himself to something outside the festival and got some ice cream in the France pavilion.

All in all, it was definitely a great trip! And next time will be our 4th trip and we can get our free Passholder cutting board!

18th September 2018 1

Our First Trip of the 2018 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival

We visited the Epcot International Food and Wine festival on the opening day! It was pretty full! A lot of annual passholders were getting their limited edition festival magnets.

We’re excited to get our free cutting board after our 4th visit! Stay tuned for that! We also grabbed a Festival Passport so we can keep track of all the tasty dishes we try! Go to the Festival Center (by Mission Space) to pick up your magnet or cutting board. They’ve also got a bunch of demonstrations and a few booths in there as well! Plus, air conditioning.

Here are the booths we checked out on our first visit!

My personal favorite was the creme brulee in France. The raspberries in the bottom. Wow.

We’re excited to go back and eat more of what Mickey is cooking up at the festival! Stay tuned for more tasty eats!

10th September 2018 1

Epcot Food and Wine Festival 2018: More Tasty Treats

Last week we went to the first day of the 2018 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival! It was our very first time at this festival and it was a big success! We had tasty eats and treats and couldn’t wait to go back! Check out the video here!

Well, we didn’t wait long before going back! Last night, I had the day off and Adam got off work in time for dinner….So to Epcot we ventured!

We didn’t do a video but I did take pictures and careful notes of our dishes so I could bring you a blog post with juicy details about the delicious things we tried. Between our 2 trips, we have tried 9 dishes and every one of them was soooo good. #noregrets Let’s dive right in…

First up are the Piggy Wings from Flavors From Fire. On the menu it says these are “roasted pork wings with Korean BBQ sauce and sesame seeds.” Adam and I like to share our dishes. There was a good amount of meat on each of these 3 piggy wings. Sometimes you get wings or lamb chops this small that just don’t have meat on them. And the meat was pretty tender too. I did use a knife and fork to cut up the wings (they’re definitely finger foods, but I don’t like getting saucy fingers) and the meat came off the bone cleanly. The sauce had good flavor, though I wish it had been just a little sweeter. We both agreed that we wanted more sauce. Of course, that would have made it messier for the finger foods eaters, but that’s what napkins are for!

Next, we headed back to Belgium. I’ve been eying this booth since the menus were announced! A beef dish and 2 waffle dishes?! Um, Hello dream come true! Anyway, we ordered the Beer-braised Beef with smoked gouda mashed potatoes and the Belgian Waffle with warm chocolate ganache and whipped cream. The beef was good. It wasn’t as tender as some of the other beef we’ve had at the festival. But the gravy was tasty and the potatoes were creamy and the gouda taste came through nicely. Honestly, I’m not a huge gouda fan, so I didn’t eat as much of this dish as Adam did, but he enjoyed it. He said that the more he ate, the more he liked it.

On to the waffle. The waffle itself was great; crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. They put a significant amount of whipped cream on it, which makes me (and Leslie Knope) happy! The chocolate ganache was rich. But I still think there should have been more of it. (that might be a theme for the trip…MORE SAUCE!) Overall, it was a pleasant dish, but I think next time I’ll try the Belgian Waffle with Berry Compote.

We knew we wanted another chocolate dessert, but first I wanted a fruity palate cleanser. Enter the Quesito from Islands of the Caribbean. It’s a “puff pastry with sweetened cream cheese and Guava Sauce.” The Guava Sauce might have been my favorite part, and so of course, I wish there had been more. Overall, this is a very light and tasty dessert. It’s not too filling and not too sweet. And while I wanted more guava sauce, that wasn’t the biggest let down. There wasn’t much cream cheese in my pastry. Truthfully, that probably won’t stop me from trying it a second time. But if the next is as empty as this was, then I’ll know that they chefs are just being stingy with the cream cheese! BOO!

And finally, the crown jewel of this trip… the Liquid Nitro Chocolate-Almond Truffle from The Chocolate Studio. I’m not even sure how to describe this. The chocolate is flash frozen with Liquid Nitrogen (think of the science that brings you sub-zero ice cream or Dippin’ Dots). The outside is solid while the inside is so creamy. SO CREAMY. It’s kind of like an ice cream truffle. It was light and delicious and while we shared it, I felt like I could eat 4 of these all on my own. (Full Disclosure: I hadn’t eaten much all day…so I could have had a slightly skewed experiences based on my dramatic feeling of starvation)

I would definitely recommend all of these dishes (and the ones we ate on day one)! So far there isn’t a dud in the batch! It’s unlikely that we’ll try ALL of the dishes, but we’ve still got plenty more we want to try… and several we’ll be re-visiting.

Stay tuned for more Epcot Food and Wine Festival 2018 updates!

6th September 2018 1

Disney College Program Series: How to Save Money on the DCP

Let’s just say it now, being an adult is ROUGH! You work and you work and you work and you get a tiny paycheck and you just want to have a little fun, but fun requires money and you’ve got bills to pay! The Disney College Program is great because it’s a paid internship opportunity, however, it’s not going to pay you loads and there are so many fun things to do in Orlando that cost money. So what are you going to do?

This blog post is going to tell you some of our tips for saving money and being generally thrifty while on you Disney College Program. Honestly, we use most of these tips all of the time, but we went especially hardcore with these techniques when we started our Disney College Program.

BEFORE YOU START SAVING- Figure out your budget. Play around with a spreadsheet and figure out how much you’ll make each week. Don’t forget to also keep track of all of the expenses too. Have a list of your rent, car payment, insurance, etc. To a certain extent, you can control what you make. Pick up extra shifts if you need extra money. Over Time is your best friend! And sometimes you have to work more now so you can play later!

On to the savings tips…

FIRST TIP- We decided we wouldn’t eat out and would grocery shop and cook at home. Fortunately, I am a pretty good cook. But you don’t have to be. Have you heard of Pinterest? Follow me on Pinterest to find some easy recipes that are great for meal planning on a budget! And you know what, we eat A LOT of peanut butter sandwiches. This way, we take our lunches and don’t spend money at the cafeterias at work. Sure a meal might only cost $5, but $5 spent everyday, 5 days a week adds up to $25 per week and $100 over the course of a month! Do you know what you could do with $100?!? We saved for a couple of months and bought Universal Studios passes. And that was just from saving money on that one meal.

SECOND TIP- Find extra little ways to make money. Once you know you’re determined to grocery shop, there are a couple of apps that will actually make you a little extra money when you use them while shopping! When we had to get set up in the apartment, we earned over $25 using just app #1!!!

#1- Ibotta app– if you haven’t tried this app, you need to! You’re already going to be buying groceries, so why not make a little extra? You get “cash back” for certain purchases (verified with a receipt you scan into the app) as as for completing certain challenges within the app. Then you can redeem your cash back via Venmo (this is my new favorite method because it’s actually cash right into my bank account) or various gift cards. You can also get bonus cash back by inviting your friends to join in the savings fun. I’ve earned almost $300 by using this app!

#2- Shopkick app- I don’t find this one to be as lucrative as Ibotta, but it’s good for an extra $25-50. And that could cover a meal or souvenir at Disney! Shopkick is still evolving and you can use it similarly to Ibotta or you can use your phone and scan items in the store to earn “kicks”. The nice thing about Shopkick is that you can redeem your kicks for a Disney Gift Card! You’ll get an email with a digital code that you can use to pay for your trip or to pay for things on your vacation. Invite Friends and you each earn 250 kicks!
***Try Shopkick and we’ll both get points toward a free gift card! 😀 Use code GIFT503676 or download http://getsk.co/gift503676

THIRD TIP- Challenge yourself to a NO SPEND WEEK. My friend and I were really ambitious one year and challenged ourselves to a No Spend Month. A month is a long time and sometimes you’re going to have to spend money. However, a Week is MUCH more doable! We have rules for our No Spend Weeks-

No spending on luxury want items- i.e. shoes, dresses, make up, candy
We can spend money on Gas
We can spend money on necessary items. For us this includes: milk, cheese, bread and eggs.
Stay off of Amazon. Online shopping will get you every time. It’s so convenient and amazon has such good prices… Just avoid it.

We’ve discovered that having a sweeping “Don’t spend any money” declaration just doesn’t work. But giving yourself lee-way for the necessities makes it a little easier. Just make sure you stick to it.

FOURTH TIP- Don’t use credit cards. It might be tempting, but if you don’t have the cash to pay for it, don’t buy it! Yes you should have fun on the Disney College Program, but don’t go into debt to do that!

FIFTH TIP- Part A- Enjoy the FREE things! While on your DCP, you have a lot of free perks offered to you by Disney. You can go to any of the Disney parks for free. Ride the rides. Walk around the shops (Don’t buy anything if it’s a NO SPEND WEEK) even treat yourself to a snack. Which brings me to my last tip…

FIFTH TIP- Part B- Know about the discounts Disney Cast Members Enjoy! Keep track of where you can eat for the best deal. Know what merchandise locations give discounts. Remember that certain times of year Disney Cast Members get even BETTER discounts! Save and plan for those times.

If you follow our tips, you’ll find you have the money you need for fun, and you’ll be able to save a little too, if you want. We’ve been able to pay all of our bills and save for fun as well! It’s totally doable!!!

1st September 2018 0