London 21st November!

Aww thats awesome if I can get them in free! As its sooo expensive for a day pass :O are you allowed to swap shifts then? Because I was thinking (if I got accepted ofcourse lol) that maybe I could work 2 weeks straight near the end of the programme, and finish it like 3 or 4 days earlier to be able to go on the Disney cruise with them. You reckon I could somehow do that xx

 

Yeah you can definately get a certain amount of people in for a certain amount of days to the parks although you have to be there to sign them in when they enter the park. You can also get a discount on merchandise (but YOU have to buy it even if its for other people, they are very strict on that) and sit down meals in the parks. This is all true as of 2008...I have no idea if it will be the same this year, I am presuming so.

As for swapping shifts... I was in merchandise and there are often people who are willing to swap (full timers, other ICP/CPs etc) but it would depend on the area you were working in and the people you're with... oh, and you will practically be working full time anyway - in my last few weeks I only got 1 day off a week

I wouldn't make any concrete decisions now and don't take my advice as 100% true as it is over a year since I did the ICP and they might have changed the rules but like I said, the last couple of days were crazy... check out my blog if you want an idea - http://magicalsummer2008.blogspot.com and go through to the end of August dates!

 

Hey there!
I did the programme this year and my mum and family came over for my last 10(ish) days. They stayed in a hotel/resort really close to the apartment complexes which was great because it was easy to get to them.they did want to stay in a disney resort because as a cast member you can get 50% off for your family and friends "if you stay with them" or 40% if you don't.

You get a maingate pass which allows you to let up to 3 guests in on 6 occassions. You cannot carry unused days over etc etc. So if you let one person on a day you only have 5 days left. if you let 3 people in on that day you have 5 days left. BHope that makes sense. The passes ur guests are given are hopper passes and you do not have to stay with them for the day. So what we did was i would sign them in at Animal kingdom ~(where i worked) and they'd hop over elsewhere whilst i worked then i'd meet them after my shift for fireworks etc.


You cannot get any days off in ur last week! NO DAYS AT ALL! You are not allowed to be ill or be late, or take a day off or your programme will end and you have to leave the country within 24 hours. I got swine flu in my last week and still had to go into work and they sent me to cast services who had to sign me off officially! no fun at all.

But you could use the disney cruuise discount in the week before and swap ur shifts and go with ur family then!

IOh and you can request days off (i think you have to do it about 3 weeks in advance on "the hub" and they can grant them or not depending on the need in ur area. By doing this I just worked 1 6 hour shift in the week my mum was there! I did this a lot for various days and it always worked for me! but again depends on ur role and the area!

Kylie x

p.s your maingate pass is useable for 2 weeks after your programme end date. It gets your free parking in WDW parks and in California so if you plan on travelling after WDW then you can do what we did which was go to LA and use our last days getting into disneyland!

 

hey catfish, just read your blog. really enjoyed it. it just made me really excited for the programme and just makes me want it even more now. Getting nervous for the 21st now arghhhhhhhh :/

 

Hehe glad you enjoyed it... labour of love that blog! 8) I just wanted it to be useful for people who were applying for the ICP in following years and I didn't write a diary or anything while I was there so it's nice to be able to read it back and see all the funny little guest stories I'd forgotten about etc.

Also, that's really cool about the maingate pass... I wasn't sure because I left WDW on the last day of the program to go back to England (boring, I know!) but if I get the chance to go again I would like to spend an extra few days there at the end which would be cool. Do you know if you can book disney resorts for the few days AFTER you finish the program at discounted rate? And also do you know roughly how much it costs? Sorry for all the questions!

 

I have to get a lovely 5 am train to get to London in time for the presentations

 

where are you getting your train from? i live near winchester, gonna be a pretty early train...and expensive too!

 

Getting the mentally early train from Portsmouth - Megatrain 12 pound return not too shabby! It will pass through Winchester

 

Bargain! Can never seem to find Megatrains when I need them... haven't got a good experience of that company - it once took me 8 hours to get from Bournemouth to Birmingham on one of their coaches

 

Oh My that's a long time. Luckily the trains run ok, just really early. Have to go get breakfast somewhere i suppose

 

ummm im confused...is that the same thing as megabus?!

 

Kind of, Same company, but one's a bus one's a train. Train is a lot faster.

 

i tried doing it but it said from winchester is has to be bus

 

Yeah from Winch i think it has to be the bus, takes forever though. The train leaves from both Portsmouth and Southampton. May be worth getting train from Winch to Southampton, and getting the train from there depending if it's much cheaper or not!

 

i'd be leaving even more riduclously early for that though wouldnt i?
although if i just did normal train it would be like at least £40 i think...

 

the earliest one from southampton is 11.55 its sold out the rest i guess? the only available is portsmouth and it takes an hour to drive to portsmouth from where i am...i dunno what to do!! help lol

 

True, i'm getting the five a.m one from Portsmouth, so that will most likely be going through Southampton by twenty to six. My student mind went for the cheaper option.

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Ah just read your post, hhmmh, Megatrain does sell out quite quickly. Not sure what too suggest, the train is crazily expensive these days, so much so i've had to start driving to uni everyday as i live out.

I suppose once you take into account the early start, petrol and parking costs just to get to Portsmouth and home, would the easier option be to just take the monetary hit and go from your local? It's a tough call, i live right in the middle between P'mouth and Soton, but luckily my parents are taking me to the station.

 

This sounds stupid but try buying two singles for two halves of the journey and sometimes it would work out cheaper!!

For example, I am going home to Bristol on Wednesday from Bournemouth.. so the single came up as £40!!!! So I put in Bournemouth to Southampton (£2.95) and then Southampton to Bristol (£4.60) so my total journey was £7.55!! A saving of over £30 A bit of a pain in the arse but good for broke students 8)

 

Hey guys, i was meant to be going from southampton to waterloo. However waterloo will be closed on sat. Im getting my dad to take me now coz it was like £60 for my whole journey. Is this a problem for anyone else??

 

Where did you see Waterloo would be closed, i can't find that info anywhere?