Okay strap yourselves in for this months update cause it's a big one! So on the 1st of June I got an email from Yummy Jobs telling us we could apply for our DBS for our Criminal Background Check. The only people that got this email were those with start dates in August so I'm assuming in July they will send out the emails for September start dates and so on. The big change with the DBS forms is when we applied in 2019 Yummy Jobs did all the work for us. This time we have to apply ourselves through the government website. The big positive from this is before Yummy Jobs charged each applicant £90 for their DBS form. However now we apply ourselves directly the application itself only costs £18!
I also got my medical insurance for the first 3 months of my program. I shopped around quite a lot, and ended up going with Alpha Insurance. On my last program I went with Outbacker Insurance, however last time it only cost me £150, and this time when I went onto Outbacker it was quoting me £210. After shopping around I found Alpha who had the exact same coverage and excess as Outbacker, however they were only charging £120.
On the 10th of June I got my email from Disney International Programs with my I-797 form. This form means you can complete your visa application so I went straight to the government website and filled out my application. I would however suggest taking your time with this, I made the mistake of rushing so there was some errors in my application. I also wasn't aware that Disney had sent a link at the end of our offer letter with helpful tips to fill out the application form. This meant I ended up putting different contact information down however I'm hoping it won't be an issue. After I filled out the application form and I got my confirmation I then went onto a different US Visa website and paid for the application, it was $190 which came to £161.50. This page is also normally where you book your embassy appointment however this changed for us. Instead of booking an appointment, after making the payment it said we were not required to attend an embassy appointment. We were all a bit thrown off as we didn't know what this meant. It also only gave the option to get your passport with your visa to get sent to a collection point in London. However on the 14th of June I got an email with US Visa Courier information. It stated that we had 24 hours to change our delivery address and could pay £20 to get it sent directly to our home address which thankfully I did. It also gave instructions to drop off our passport and visa documents at a courier location so instead of having to fly down to London to go to the embassy we could literally just post our documents! This was such good news for me being from the Highlands, however my heart did sink when I looked at the drop off locations and there was only 2 in the whole of Scotland, Glasgow and Edinburgh. I live 4 hours away from both however I have my graduation in Glasgow in July so I decided to save the petrol and wait a couple weeks to drop my documents off before my graduation.
On the 15th of July I got an email from Disney Training with a pre-arrival video that we are required to watch before we fly out. It lasted about 20 minutes and was relatively new so that was quite exciting to watch.
One thing on my To-Do list was to gain access to my Partners Bank account. Partners was the bank we used whilst out on the CRP and since I still had money in my account I planned to use that for money when I arrive. However Partners have had issues with people accessing their accounts internationally. It took a while to get bank into my account but after a few Zoom calls with an agent in California we managed to figure out the source of the problem. As a security measure partners require a US phone number to be attached to the account, however being in the UK I don't have a US phone number anymore so the agent just attached the Partners Company phone number to my account until I get my own in August and I got straight back into my online banking.
On the 27th of June I got my email from Disney Housing to register for DORMS. This involved just giving basic information but also rating my choice for housing. My top choice was to have my own room but shared bathroom, my second was my own room and own bathroom and my third was shared room and shared bathroom. I doesn't bother me too much about paying extra for housing as I would rather have my own space. I also think Flamingo Crossings looks totally worth the money so I'm hoping I will get the most out of this experience. One thing different this time around is you can opt in to mixed gender housing, so in the previous housing the apartments were either all male or all female. I've chosen to opt in for mixed housing as I've lived with boys before and had a great time, I am worried however if I was to end up in a shared bedroom its unclear if you could end up with a male roommate. I think that would be difficult but I'm hoping having a shared bedroom as my last choice means that won't happen.
On the 29th of June I got an email from Disney Housing inviting me to a welcome session to answer any questions. There are two sessions we can attend however one is during my graduation and the other is whilst I'm driving home from Glasgow so I can't attend either but I'm hoping my friend is able to attend and can fill me in.
It's crazy how fast it feels June has gone, it feels like I blinked and a whole month has just flown by so that scares me with how fast the next 50 days could go. As it stands I have paid all my fees, bought everything I need, there only a couple little bits and bobs left to pick up but I'm actually ready to go! In just a couple of days I can say I'm moving back to Orlando next month!
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