The DS-160 Form!

Well I will start by saying how glad I am for the visa process to be over! It was a bit of a disaster from the start but I got there in the end! For now I'll start with the form.

So first of all it was all very exciting getting my visa documents in the post! It came in a big envelope with a yummy jobs stamp on so I knew exactly what it was when I saw it (plus I had been given a heads up from Talie that they were on the way!

Our visa documents were sent out at the same time as the April 8th's arrival group so we got our slightly earlier than you would usually expect them. Me, Talie, Katherine, Annaliese and Olivia decided we would all go for our interviews on the 18th March at 8/8:30am so we could all meet up etc :)

Filling in the DS-160 form was not the funniest thing I've ever had to do and was very tedious- when it comes to you doing it I would suggest you having all your paperwork to hand and your passport etc. Things like listing the last 5 times you went to the state isn't exactly something you know off the top of your head if it goes back quite a while! I ended up putting in my Dad's year of birth as 1958 but then my mum informed me AFTER I completed the form that it was 1957. Now, I'm sure it wouldn't have made a massive difference to my application but obviously I wanted to make sure everything was completely correct on all my paperwork so it meant I had to fill in ANOTHER DS-160 but at least this time it had all my information already in there so I just had to edit the bit I had done wrong. After a million questions asking me if I was a criminal of any sort I finally finished! Filling out the visa form made me kinda feel like this by the end:

After the form had been completed I had to book my appointment which you can now do online! This is  SO much better because as you may have read in other blogs you used to have to call a phone line who charged £1.50 (!) a minute so I was very thankful that I didn't have to pay this although I was planning to use works phone if I did (sorry Jackie if you are reading this haha!). But it is super easy to choose your time now and choose whether you want your passport sent to a pick up location which was free or to your home/private address which was an extra $30! Just as my luck would have it none of the pick up points were overally close to me so after petrol etc it made more sense for me to just have my visa sent to my house. 

Talie very kindly allowed me and Katherine to stay at hers the night before so it meant I didn't have to pay peak time fare into London and leave at stupid o'clock in the morning- plus any excuse for a meet up eh? ;)

I know, I know....

You don't have to tell me how bad I have been with this blog, I am ashamed of myself! After I promised everyone I would keep it going in Orlando I am failing and I'm still at home...oops! In my defence though my life has been pretty crazy since I've found out I've got a place and to kind of make up for the lost time I will write a few blog posts to bring you completely up to date with what's been happening :)

So possibly the biggest (littlest) thing which has happened is the birth of my gorgeous nephew Parker James Robbins! Now I know I'm biased but I'm pretty sure there's no cuter baby in existence (although that will change when my other sister's baby comes, as he/she will be equally as cute). He was a bit poorly for a while and gave us a real scare but fortunately made a full recovery and is completely perfect <3

The day after Parker was born I received my CRB in the post to say I wasn't a criminal! Yay! It's strange because although I knew I had nothing to worry about as I have never been in trouble it was still a relief to get it through and everything be okay! I had visions of some crazy criminal using my identity to commit heinous crimes (paranoia at it's finest) and it was nice to have an official document saying my employer is Walt Disney World!!!!

Time seems to be going so fast it's insane and before I know it I'll be on that plane and with the birth of Parker I am starting to realise all the stuff I will miss out on here. However, I also know this experience will be worth it and the year will go by so quickly and this time next year I'll be preparing to come home *cry*.  I never want to forget how lucky I am to have this opportunity <3

One way ticket to Orlando

I've had quite a few things going on recently so my apologies for not updating sooner!

On the 4th January my lovely boyfriend took me to Disney on Ice at the 02 as a Christmas present which was really really good although I did spend most of the day very jealous of all the little girls dressed as princesses! I would recommend the show to everyone and even John really enjoyed it :) I really wanted these magical looking snow cone cup things but they were an extortionate £9 and I'm trying to be super good with money at the moment *cry* but we had really good seats and the show was amazing so I can't complain really :)

After the show me & John went for dinner at the American Sports Bar & Grill when Talie (hopefully future roomie) commented on my check in on facebook which lead to us planning a spontaneous meet up with her & her boyfriend Will as she only lives about 15 minutes away from the O2. As I mentioned in a previous post we have all met before but I was looking forward to seeing them again as we hadn't seen each other since we got our date!

After dinner me & John headed over to the Slug & Lettuce to meet Talie & Will & then went to Las Iguanas (ironically where we went after our F2F but in South Bank)  where it was happy hour which made me very happy indeed! We spent the next few hours consuming too many 2-4-1 cocktails & talking all things Disney whilst the boys spoke about their plans to visit & how awful their girlfriends were for leaving them ;) It made me even more excited for Disney and how quickly time is going which means we will be out there in no time! We parted ways about 11pm (9 hours after me and John originally got to the O2) and headed home so Will could get his well deserved kebab he had been pining for all night haha.

All the excited Disney talk made me itching to book my flight so I emailed Louise the next day to see if I should as in the step by step guide it tells you not to until after the visa appointment (although I'm pretty sure this is just to cover themselves incase you aren't successful in obtaining the visa). Once Louise had come back to say that I could go ahead and book I contacted Yummy Travel. 

I decided I wanted to book my flight & sort out my insurance at the same time because you get 10% off your insurance if you pay for them together. I spoke to really nice & helpful girl called Jade who found me the same flight that I had been looking at online flying from Gatwick at 11:15 to MCO with Virgin for £370. I had previously searched the same flight directly through Virgin & it had quoted me £1020 so I would definitely recommend you go through STA especially if you are under 26 :) 

If I'm honest the insurance choosing wasn't very fun, I found it a bit daunting because it's so important but after advice for my boyfriend, family & the guys in our Disney facebook group (don't know what I'd do without them sometimes!) I decided on the Blue Standard Policy as I didn't think I would need the Premium Policy however I know a few of the girls have taken that out so it's completely personal preference but I felt that I would rather save the extra £80 or so that the Premium cost. Altogether I paid £550.26 for my flight, insurance & excess waiver which I thought was pretty good :)

John also booked a holiday out to see me from 28th May for 2 weeks :) Ideally he would come out a bit later but it's just too expensive because of the school holidays (boo) but I'm just happy he's going to be coming out to visit :) We also booked a reservation at Be Our Guest for whilst he's there so I'm hoping I'm not working that night because I am too excited to eat there! 

Everything is starting to come together :)