Hello! I wanted to do a little update post today, since today marks two weeks until the magic beings! 

If you've been following my blog, you'll know the last CEP post I created was about booking my tour with STA for after the program. Today's post will detail all the little things I've organized and bought in the final run up to the big day. If you're thinking of doing this program in the future, this is probably a really important post, for those of you who are not - this may be a tad boring!! So I've added some pretty pictures of my last trip to WDW to break up this rather lengthy post of boring but important stuff.

I'm not a fan of Facebook, but it certainly has its perks. I believe every year there is an official "Disney CEP 20.." group on Facebook that you can join for the purpose of meeting new people, people on your flight, people doing the same role as you, people doing the same trip after the program and to post any queries about the program you may have. I cannot stress how helpful and lovely being a part of this group is! You are guaranteed to run into the same problem as dozens of other people and sometimes it's hard to find the correct number for companies to ring, or e-mails take 24 hours+ to return, so being able to share your issue with hundreds of people in the same position is so beneficial. 

There's also separate groups for your arrival date, so you can really filter down the people who might be on your flight or arriving at the same time as you. I really thought I'd be the only one on my flight, I didn't realise how many people were actually going to the program! But it turns out there are about 10 people on my flight alone! Even the less popular flights still had about 5 people, according to the poll. From this, we then made our own chat box to get to know each other, help each other with the process and further things. For example, one member of my flight group is doing the same STA tour as me and we have also decided to preference to room with each other. Some like to leave everything to fate, but if you really get on with someone you start talking to, why not try to room with them? 

Here are the links to this year's groups (you have to be approved). You may want to join them for preference for next year so you can have a look at some of the questions / parts of the process you may come across or if you just want a nosey at what we're up to!

Disney CEP Summer 2015

Disney Cultural Exchange Program 2015

Disney CEP Arrival 8th/9th June 2015

Disney's Magic Kingdom

Medical insurance

Vital. Disney won't let you in, immigration will not even let you 10 steps off the plane without medical insurance! Disney require all participants to get cover with HTH Worldwide, Disney sent me a special link to this site which is specifically for Disney participants. I'm not going to butter this up and say it was really simple, I had not a clue what each of the policies mean - they tend to use different phrases and words for things that we are used to with UK insurance. There are three policies to choose from, I simply went for the middle one, the second most expensive for $104 per month, which works out to be about £200 for the three months. I think the main differences in the policies were simply the amount of $ each item covers. So policy one might cover $100 of something, two $200 of something etc. 

Here's a list of items the insurance covers in general (expenses differ between each policy)

- Injury

- Injury/illness that requires you to be moved to access required medical facilities

- If covered person is in hospital for 7 days or more, insurer will pay for flights and accommodation of one family member to visit

- Accidental death (plus flight home)

- Dental treatment that would lead to health condition if left untreated

- Don't think it covers for pre-existing conditions 

- Doesn't cover injury by alcohol/drugs

- Doesn't cover self inflicted injuries 

- Doesn't cover preventative medications/routine exams

- Nothing to do with pregnancy outside of cover dates, unnecessary cosmetic/plastic surgery, sex change etc (hardly something you'd go to Disney to under go, but thought I'd mention it so we're clear haha!) 

- I'm not sure if it covers your flight home if you had to leave due to illness

- Lots of other little bits and bobs it does and does not cover

It's really important to note that this medical insurance is purely just medical insurance, not travel insurance. 

Travel insurance

If you want to be covered for things like personal items going missing/stolen, flight cancellations, anything to do with travelling then you'll need to get a travel insurance! I wouldn't go anywhere abroad without it. Disney don't want you to have any specific travel insurance so you can go for the cheapest or most expensive if you want. This is really simple, unless your role is a lifeguard, like me. Lifeguarding can be seen as a 'dangerous sport/water activity' and most travel insurance companies don't cover this. I spoke to the AA about their cover and they said they wouldn't cover me for anything involving lifeguarding, however I would be covered for everything else like flights etc not relating to lifeguarding for £61 for three months. This could be an option for some who want to keep costs down because we already have full medical cover with the HTH insurance. However, I'm thinking it's better to have more than enough cover than not enough? 

I found, after getting in contact with them, Outbacker Insurance covers lifeguards. You simply choose your plan, and in the "add on" section, add Sports and Activities category B - this will cover lifeguarding in pools (not sea). You can access Outbacker by clicking here. I've been told Holiday Safe and GoWalkabout also cover lifeguarding, but I would check before going with any of these policies as they might change frequently! 

Money

I've ordered a FairFX currency card. Disney don't pay us until a couple weeks into the program, when we accepted our offer back at Christmas, we also paid $350 which goes towards paying for the first few weeks of rent so we don't need to worry about that but we do need money for food and any other bits. A FairFX card works like a debit card, it will work in any of the USA Mastercard card machines and ATMs ($2 charge per withdrawal on ATMs) and I think you can also pay for things online. It also comes with an online banking or app feature maybe your parents can manage your money from home (by manage, I mean put lots of extra dollar in hehe). The card fee is £10 but sometimes you can get it free by checking out sites like Money Saving Expert. An alternative would be Caxton card. 

I've heard you can use your regular UK debit card in America but it will not be a very good exchange rate, you will probably get charged for using it and your bank may initially block your card because it's being used in a foreign country which could cause inconvenience. 

I'm also planning on ordering some dollar bills. I'm going to take £300 worth of dollars, which will be around $500. I thought it would be a good idea to divide this money into three (three months) so I have £100 per month to use as pocket change for taxis, buses, tips etc. This will be especially useful in my last month where I will be doing a lot of travelling and require taxi fares. With the FairFX card, you can draw out money from ATMs but there is usually a $2 charge. 

Packing

Admittedly, I haven't done much on this front. Just last night I did a huge order to Superdrug covering most of the things I'll need. Packing is a really awkward subject because I want to pack light because I know I'll be buying loooaaads, but I'm going for 3 months! So I think the best thing to do is just pack everything you know you can't get in the states. For example, I like to use a certain shampoo that they don't do out there, certain make up etc. As for clothes, I haven't even started but I know everything should be light and not heavy at all because of the humidity. I've seen some blog posts that recommend taking a jacket and jeans as the air-con can get a bit chilly. And definitely a rain mac! I'm going to do a more detailed post about packing when I have actually packed.

Bedding

Disney doesn't provide any linens like duvets and towels so participants need to get hold of them somehow themselves. One option is to vacuum pack a thin duvet, pillow and cover set, which is ok because you can leave or throw away these items before you return home or go travelling to free up space in your case. However, I expect not many people will have room in their outbound case for all of that stuff. 

Thanks to the Facebook group, I found out some people are ordering a bedding set from Walmart to be picked up when they arrive from their local Walmart (Turkey Lake Road I think it's called). This is a really great idea I thought! I had a struggle working out the American's terms for items. Most of the bedding sets come with a comforter which is like a very thin duvet with the cover already attached, it doesn't come off, you simply wash the whole thing. It also comes with a fitted sheet and a flat sheet and pillow case (the same as UK items) and also a sham. A sham is described as a patterned pillow case. So the pillow case is usually one block colour which matches the fitted sheet and the sham goes on top and is usually patterned and matches the pattern on the comforter. You still with me? These range from $20-$100+ depending on the brand. This is a pretty good idea! 

Walmart has the option to deliver to store for free, as I said and they hold the items for 14 days so you can order the items in advance while you're still at home. You need to be aware that some items may not be available until certain dates so keep this in mind when choosing items. You can't order your items to be delivered to your Disney housing before you arrive. After you check in, this is fine. But why not just grab everything you need when you arrive? There are 1000's of participants arriving on this day and probably all have the same idea - Walmart will sell out very quickly! So it's best to order exactly what you want online. You're very likely to head to Walmart with your apartment mates on the first night to get some necessities. 

Alternatively, Disney are in connection with a particular website that specialises in providing amenities for college students. This site will allow you to order bits pieces like bedding and have them delivered to the front desk of your complex ready to pick up when you check in. This is handy but slightly more expensive than Walmart I think. Disney will e-mail you a link to this site after your housing registration e-mail.

At this stage, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to purchase a thin duvet from Primark or somewhere cheap and try to fit it in my suitcase. I've also got a cheap duvet cover from Morrisons and a single fitted sheet from home that I'm going to squeeze in and then order a matress protector and pillows to pick up from walmart. I might also order a comforter set so I can swap if I don't feel like washing the bed clothes on that day. 

Housing

You will receive an email a few weeks before you leave about housing. This is where you can select what complex you want and room mates to preference. You can only choose two other room mates to room with, which is such a shame because there is 4 of us! This system requires a room 'leader' to sign up first and invite up to two other participants of the same gender and start date to room with them. When the other two participants receive the invite they can sign up too and the link should be created. When you do your individual sign in, you have to accept the terms and conditions and print out your boarding pass and both terms and conditions documents and bring those to check in. Since there is four of us, we've had to make two leaders, and simply make the same preferences. We have also emailed Disney to ask if we could all be together but the likelihood of that is pretty slim. 

That's about everything for now! Keep an eye out for future posts on packing and housing complexes.

*14 days to go*

B x