Thank you Disney World!

Cara Adams has been living and working at Disney World since graduating from ITC. Here she is pictured in her costume for the ‘Honey I Shrunk the Kids’ playground.
ITC graduate Cara Adams has been living and working at Disney World for the past year. What a journey it has been! She shares some of her favourite memories as she prepares to fly back home to New Zealand.
I am now on the home stretch of my programme with less than four weeks to go – I cannot believe how fast this year has gone! For the second half of my programme I have been working at Sunset Ranch Market in Hollywood Studios which is a quick service restaurant. I was especially nervous starting this role back in July because I had become so attached to my first job in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground.
At first it was daunting because the role is more fast paced and can be very stressful on the busy days. On my first day there I had an extremely busy training schedule because there are so many locations included in the Sunset Ranch area. There are eight different locations to work in and I needed to be trained at every one of the, from how to make the food how to operate the registers and how to fill orders. Altogether training was two weeks which was a massive difference to the three days of training I had for the playground. When I first got out of training I found the job very fast paced but after a few weeks you learn to love it because it makes for no boring days and the shifts fly by.
This was also a hard part of my programme because most of the people I met in January were now leaving so I had to say goodbye to many people including my roommates who left in August. Although this was a very emotional part of the year it just made me realise even more how much of an impact the people you meet here have on you. It was like saying goodbye to my Disney family. The sadness was short-lived because I met a whole new group of friends at work and also when I received new roommates. It just goes to show, there are always new friends to be made on this programme. I have grown to love this job, it may be challenging at times but it keeps you busy and the people I work with are amazing and make it so fun.
A lot has happened in the last few months, I went to Dallas in Texas to see my best friend Kat who was on the programme earlier in the year. I have also been on a Norwegian cruise that went from Miami to the Bahamas, it was amazing! I also had my Disney graduation two days ago which was a day where we received our completion certificate, graduation ears and were able to celebrate with our fellow cast members with a barbeque lunch it was a fantastic day.
Now my programme is drawing to a close and I’ll be on my home in just over three weeks, I don’t know how I’m going to say goodbye to this amazing place and the people I have met here. It’s been the biggest rollercoaster ride and I wouldn’t change a single thing, it has been the most incredible year of my life and I will keep these memories forever.
By Cara Adams
You can read about the first six months of Cara’s time at Disney World here!
Posted in Student success | Tagged Disney World, ITC graduates, life experience, tourism jobs, Travel, Work Experience | Leave a reply