Welcome to my Disney Blog!

My name is Caitlyn and I am currently a Junior Marine Affairs major at the University of New England. While promoting the stewardship and conservation of the oceans is something I am very passionate about, my other life passion is Disney. 

Me in front of Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL January 2018

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I am obsessed with Disney. Disney movies, the Disney Parks, Disney Youtube videos, Disney merchandise, Disney pins, and Disney history. All of these things have found their way into my life, some from the beginning to other aspects later on.

I grew up with my older sister Brittany, who being five years older had already found a love for the classic Disney movies so I by default would watch those same movies and fell in love with them. The stories, the magic, and the characters all meant a lot to me. One of our favorites being The Lion King which I’m sure I have now watched about 200+ times in my 19 years. My parents having two girls who loved Disney, decided to bring us to Disney World in Florida. With us visiting there 5 times up to the time I was eight.

My sister (on the right) and me (on the left) on our Disney World trip in 2006 with the Genie from the movie Aladdin

So it is clear to say that my love for Disney has been from a young age and has continued up to the present day. From the time of the last Disney trip in 2008 I still always loved Disney but it was definitely not the level of obsession that it has become today. 

What reignited my passion for everything Disney related?

In my Sophomore year of high school I was still in the process of finding myself and trying to figure out how I fit in with my fellow peers. I was apart of three sports, I did theater, and joined a couple of clubs yet I still felt lost. I always knew that Disney was something that brought me joy and could make me smile so I started watching some Disney videos on Youtube.

Randomly I stumbled across this thing called the Disney College Program. I will have the details about this program for a later post but a quick summary is that you apply and if accepted get the opportunity to work for the Disney Company in the parks while also living in Orlando for six months! You can build your resume and also can take classes for college credit. This sounded amazing to me!

https://jobs.disneycareers.com/disney-college-program

So to summarize what happened afterwards would be that I became obsessed. I found tons of Disney College Program vlogs on Youtube and spent hours watching all of them. I couldn’t believe that here was this program that allowed you to go work for such a well known company while getting to experience and create Disney magic everyday. I was so excited, I made it my plan to one day do this program and once I am in my senior year of college I will apply to it and hopefully get in.

What resulted in this reignited obsession of Disney was my want to travel back to Disney World. I would annoy the crap out of my parents with my constant requests of wanting to travel back. After many failed tries of convincing them for an entire year, they finally surprised me with a four day trip in April of 2016!!!!

My family and me on our April vacation trip in 2016 with Pluto!

What this trip meant to me:

I felt so blessed to be able to go on an amazing trip with my loving parents. I’m pretty sure I cried five or six times on that trip. All of my previous trips to Disney world I was too young to remember things in detail so this trip was a completely new experience. I remember stepping in the Magic Kingdom, looking at the castle and crying. I was in the happiest place on earth.

A place that I had been dreaming of going back to for a whole year. I was full of emotions. You see Disney for some people is just cartoons for little kids but for me I call it my second home. It is a safe place for me. When I watch Disney vloggers on Youtube I can relate to them so much more than I could to people in high school and even people that I’ve met in college. It has evolved from just an interest into a passion. This trip with my family made me so happy and cheered me up from all the drama or crappy stuff I had been dealing with at school. 

Me feeling so happy in front of the partner statue in the Magic Kingdom in April 2016

How is Disney incorporated into my life present day:

After my trip in 2016 I subscribed to so many Disney College Program vloggers and watched their videos constantly. I now had about 6 or 7 new Disney t-shirts, 7 new Disney trading pins, and thousands of pictures. I wanted to do something with these photos so in July 2016 I decided to create my own Disney instagram account. This was something I was apprehensive about doing at first but took the leap and just made it with the original name being Disney_Fanatic_101. Pretty fitting I thought for how obsessed I was. 

I discovered that there is a whole digital world of thousands upon thousands of Disney instagram accounts just like the one that I made. It was so encouraging to see. It also made me so excited to post and share my Disney memories with people who may have been planning for a trip or for people to look at my photos and make them smile. I wanted to spread joy through my pictures to others around the world. 

Today I have over 1300 followers and still try to post everyday. I changed the name to caitlyn_at_the_castle last year but my reasoning to post is still the same as it was a few years ago, to share my memories and to make others smile. I just recently went on a trip in January of this year with my sister and it was such a memorable experience that I was so happy to have shared with her. 

My sister and me in front of Cinderella’s Castle January 2019

What I want this blog to be:

I want to share my passion for Disney and to show my you how it isn’t just a place for kids but for people of all ages. As Walt Disney himself once said “Laughter is timeless. Imagination has no end. And dreams are forever.” Disney is for everyone and hopefully through this blog your interest may be peaked or you may learn to understand why Disney means so much to me. I will end with a link to one of my favorite Disney Youtube Vloggers, Shelby Rhodes. She was such an inspiration for me and why I continue to hold onto my dream of attending the Disney College Program.

http:/https://youtu.be/S3SNz9a-eHo