Amber Earns Her Ears: My Secret Walt Disney World Cast Member Diary Read Online Free PDF Page B

sun began to shine more brightly and the tent had filled to bursting, it was time to head toward the check-in building at the back of the complex. I waved goodbye to my parents and sister as they went to the parents’ tent to wait for me and drink some hot chocolate.
    Just before we started to move, I heard a squeal and was taken completely by surprise when I found myself on the receiving end of an enthusiastic hug. Paige had made it! Shorter than me, with dark frizzy hair and exuberant energy, Paige looked similar to the photo I had seen of her. We joined the throng of people slowly moving farther into the complex, and on the way struck up a conversation with two girls, Jenni and Leah, whom Paige had met at last night’s gathering at Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney. Both of these girls were also shorter than me, with short brown hair and broad grins. (Leah, in fact, was the girl in the Mickey Mouse jacket I had earlier mistaken for Rebecca!) The air of excitement was tangible. We didn’t know what we were about to do, we didn’t know where we were going, but we couldn’t wait to get started.
    That cold February morning was a blur of paperwork, trivia questions, music, and loud chatter. I remember standing in line to go into a large building at the back of Vista when Jenni and I overheard someone talking about name tags. We immediately flew into a frenzy, wondering if we were about to receive our official Disney name tags already. It turned out the people we overheard were merely talking about temporary stick-ons, but we had no difficulty redirecting our enthusiasm.
    After receiving our sticky name tags, we moved around the building to a side pavilion where a DJ was set up in the front, playing music and calling out trivia questions. People were constantly running up to receive prizes for their correct answers. After waiting in line, the four of us huddled around a table to fill out some paperwork, then we moved into the building where the main activity seemed to be taking place.
    The first thing we did was tell the Disney Housing staff who we were going to room with, and in which complex we wanted to stay. Paige took control of our little group. The two girls, Rebecca and Violet, that we had agreed to room with beforehand were lost in the sea of people behind us in line. Since Leah and Jenni had no one else to room with, we made a spontaneous decision to room together.
    It was quite possibly the best decision I made for the entire six months.
    To further our luck, Vista Way wasn’t an option for the latest arrivals. Chatham or Patterson were left, both of which were wonderful choices. After a minute or two of “I don’t care,” and “me either”, Paige told the Cast Member with the clipboard that we would room in Chatham.
    As we waited for confirmation, we chatted with a group of boys from our Facebook group behind us in line; they had decided to room at Patterson. We joked about the perks of our respective complexes, and then Paige waved us over to join another line where we were assigned a two-bedroom apartment in Chatham, received our keys, and sat down to take a photo for our housing ID, the small plastic cards responsible for getting past Chatham security and onto the College Program buses (both programs used the same buses). Good luck getting the bus driver to let you on if you accidentally leave your ID on the coffee table — or even getting security to let you back in to retrieve it.
    Once outside, I spotted the table for car registrations. Jenni and Leah had forgotten their insurance information, so they headed back to their cars to get it. We all agreed to meet up at the apartment — 22301! — when we were done with check-in.
    I stayed at the little desk and struggled to understand the significance of the different papers in my folder. There was some question as to whether my name was actually on the insurance, but after a moment’s digging, I unearthed a page with my name on it. I