The Road to Disneyland

I’m from Seattle, so the road trip to Anaheim was almost 20 hours long (including the 2 extra hours of traffic at the end going through LA). I knew I wanted to bring my car down with me to Anahiem because parking is provided at Carnegie Plaza, the DCP apartment complex, and I knew it would make getting to work much easier than taking the bus. My Mom was helpful enough to make the drive with me, which made it much more enjoyable! We left at 8 PM on a Friday because I had to finish work at my summer internship at Wunderman, and we had to be to Carnegie Plaza in Anaheim to check in by Sunday morning.

With our audiobook of Girl, Wash your Face playing, we were so excited to get to California that we ended up driving straight through the night! When we finally got to the LA area at about 4 PM on Saturday after a couple hours of stop and go on the freeway. We got a hotel room, and then quickly got ready for dinner at Downtown Disney because we were both in need of a little Disney. 😉 We shopped around after dinner and watched the some fireworks through the trees of Downtown Disney. Even though we didn’t go into the park, we still had fun being in the Disneyland Resort area and soaking up some Disney magic. We also walked over to the ticket kiosks where I will be working at a Vacation Planner and watched the cast members work. Even though I'd seen those kiosks hundreds of times, it was so exciting and different looking at them as the place I'll be working. 

After walking around a bit, we had the brilliant idea to go up to the 6th-floor balcony in the Grand Californian Hotel which faces California Adventure and watch the World of Color show from there. Little did we know, the World of Color show is not going during Pixar Fest! However, we still felt lucky getting to see glimpses of the Paint the Night parade through the trees. But, if you ever stay at the Grand, take advantage of the beautiful view of California Adventure that balcony has, especially at night.

Back at our hotel room, we packed our bags and made sure we were ready for the next morning… Check-in day to Carnegie Plaza!

The Itinerary --

My first week at the Disney College Program was all scheduled out for me in my itinerary, which was emailed out 5 days before check-in. The itinerary outlines the first week at the Disney College Program, including housing check-in time! At the Disneyland Disney College Program, check-in times were as early as 9 AM and as late as 12:30 PM, so mine was somewhere in the middle at 11:15 AM. Another exciting piece of information in the itinerary is work location! My role is a Vacation Planner, so I already knew I would be in the ticket kiosks between Disneyland and California Adventure. However, my roommates were given their locations in this email which was fun to find out!

This was my itinerary for my first week:

Name, Session Date & Time, Location

1. Housing Check-In, August 12, 2018 11:15 AM, Carnegie Plaza Apartments

2. Housing Welcome Session, August 12, 2018 03:00 PM, Downtown Anaheim Community Center

3. Disney College Program Orientation, August 12, 2018 04:30 PM, Downtown Anaheim Community Center

4. Casting Onboarding, August 13, 2018 10:30 AM, Team Disney Anaheim (TDA)

5. Welcome Event, August 13, 2018 05:00 PM, Carnegie Plaza Promenade

6. INSIDE OUT Fair, August 14, 2018 10:00 AM, Muzeo/Carnegie Library

7. Traditions: Wednesday, August 15, 2018 08:00 AM, Team Disney Anaheim (DU)

8. Step into the Magic: Thursday, August 16, 2018 09:00 AM, Team Disney Anaheim (DU)