Hey everyone... quick question... I was wondering how common contract extensions are these days? I think I remember hearing about them more a few years ago. Do they still extend? Is it more common for some countries and not for others? Thanks, Sandra
Totally depends. Varies with issues such as pavillion, work location, time of year. It's all about the numbers I'm afraid. How likely you are to get an extension depends almost solely on staffing levels at the time you'd be extending into. If they are short and you can help them out, they'll love for you to stay. If they are overstaffed, then there's pretty much no chance. The same applies to shortening your contract whilst keeping your relo. I was lucky, i managed to extend (as UK merch were predicting to be short last summer) and then later shorten my extension by 2 weeks (we were 1 CM over) so I could be back in time for uni. There's no guarentee. But you never know. Ona x
Yes it really depends on numerous factors....if you really like it there, then you should ask for an extenstion right away so that new staff doesn't come in, taking over the position you 'should have been' leaving from. There is also the option of going right from WDW to the cruise line. Lots of people do that too.
Just don't forget that it will be so different when all your friends are gone! I wasn't very happy in the end, because it wasn't the same anymore, so it was time to leave after 12 months! Julia
Yeah I must admit that that was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do; watch all my friends leave. I was the official airpot run person. I swear if I never wave anyone off through that glass partition at Orlando International again, I'll be happy. But having said that, I think I gained alot from being there that bit longer. I became much closer to other people with the end result that I have an even larger group of close friends. But it's def. not easy. I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about it. :-\ Ona x
I agree Ona, u must have been all over the place when I left? How did u cope?hehe Fellow Monday Clubber!
Seriously! We had to wait in the airport for hours until I was able to drive! Actually it did take us a while to get out of there. Although that may have had something to do with Lee trying to remove all the nuts! Lol! Damn you being the first! Hugs really, Ona x
Yeah I was just so sick of saying goodbye, I couldn't stand more leaving parties. Also the fact that 9/11 had just happened was definitely a reason for me to really looking forward to go home again! Julia
It wasn't nice that by the time my throw out (or leaving party) came around, most of the people that I was really close to were already home. I got the feeling like I was a relic of some description. Noone left in merch knew UK merch without me being there. Like an old part of the furniture. Noone remembered the stories you remember or even the people in them. Weird! But still absolutely worth it. I felt that I'd had my time by the end which is something I'm glad of. I know alot of people who felt like they were ripped out of the Commons and thrown back into their old lives. I guess I just had that extra little bufer. Getting back to the topic ............. .............. hell, you can but try! Ask and see. Lol! Ona x
So true....it really is not the same at all at the end of the 12 months (not necessarily BAD, just different).
Ona- I felt the same. I went on a trip to Canada about 8 months after I had finished my contract and met a girl there who had just finished her contract and went to Canada for the final trip. So I met all of my friends at the reunion and she didn't know any of them. It was so weird. I was like "how could you live there without knowing who this and that person is" lol. Julia
Hey everyone I extended my contract for about 10 weeks (as you might remember Ona!) which was really pushing it. I had to get my visa extended and everything. It worked well as I finished on the exact same day as my girlfriend from Canada- but I must say some of those weeks were my worst there not best. Things change so repidly out there- and suddenly when all your original friends are gone it can seem like a lonely place. Don't get me wrong I had some great times during my extention, however, I think after 12 months I perhaps should have left. My advice to everyone is ask you managers about the possibility of an extention, but don't commit until you are sure, as once you have agreed theres no turning back, and once you see all your close mates leave it might just change your mind!
On the opposite end, think twice about shortening too. Two of my best friends there both shortened and when the day came to leave, they didn't want to anymore...but too late! It was a messy scene at the Commons gate...then they missed their plane. Shan
Oh yeah, leaving early. I arrived in September and would have had to be back by March for Uni, which is why I originally told everybody that I was probably going back by then. But secretly I didn't really want to go back to Uni anyway, so that date wasn't set in stone. I pretty quickly realized that I wouldn't really want to go back just yet with all I experienced in Orlando, so that date slipped. Then, after the christmas rush / three months (I usually have my low there), everybody else started talking about leaving early and some people got terminated. I thought I should plan for the time after Orlando, which is why I set a day in June to return home, in order for me to apply for other things. I even told my managers I was going to leave, just to have that extra punch with all the other people turning their backs on them - they really treated us like sh+t back then. The closer the date came, the more I realized that I wasn't really prepared to plan my life just yet, which is why I wanted to stay. And THEN I realized how much I would miss the people that DID stay. When it came to write leaving book entries, I just couldn't stand it anymore. I really fought hard with myself, my parents and my friends expecting me back home, but in the end I asked my managers if I could stay anyway. And lo and behold, they really tried to make it happen. In the end, I didn't even have to move apartments, although housing was VERY short on beds and they had already reassigned my room. Talking to a certain someone in the Commons (didn't even know there was an office in the building next to the clubhouse) helped - there are SOME people there who really CAN make magic happen, even with housing. And then I stayed the full year until the end of September. I had to say goodbye to lots of people over the course of the whole year - it was pretty weird with our arrival group in the German pavilion. In the end, I even slipped into service with a delay of only one week. And then the hurricanes came and everything was getting VERY strange again. Our arrival group really didn't have much luck money-wise. But that's maybe the reason why we became close. Ona, I know exactly what you mean. The last two or three weeks were hell for me. There were tons of new people there and I somehow just had the feeling that they were just immitating the arrivals before them. That's bullocks of course, because they just did their own thing, but I just felt that I didn't belong there anymore. I was expecting it because others had told me, but up until the last few days/weeks you just can't believe it will end. And when it dawns on you, you're already somehow ready to leave just because of it. I didn't feel the urge to extend, not in the last two weeks. We were kind of lucky because we were 6 or 8 people on the flight back - the very same people that sat in a plane to Orlando a year earlier. At least some of us made it in the end. Quite amazing - I still can't get over the whole scope things. Sniff...
great infor everyone,thanx for sharing. ...i was wondering how did u extend ur visa??? is it just Ip that can extend if poition is available.. thanx nat xx
Erm ....... can't remember exactly but I'm almost certain that I asked about it at my first one-on-one. ;D Lol! ;D I was pretty certain from the moment I got there that I wanted to stay as long as possible. But in general, I would give it at least a couple of months before deciding. ALOT changes in those first few months. If you are considering it, I would simply mention it to your homeroom manager. Obviously you'll need to give them a fair amount of time to check it out. It's not your area managers who decide; it goes higher up than that so it's never a quick decision. Julia, I know exactly what you mean. We had a reunion last month and there were "old" people and "newbies" there who didn't know each other. So wierd! I would def. echo the thoughts concerning shortening your contract. Unless there was a really good reason for it, I would never recommend it. No matter how much you think you want to be home, I'd almost guarentee that as soon as you get off that plane, there'd be some part of you that would want to be back in WDW. That is true even if you don't shorten : , but at least if you stick it out you will not have that regret hanging over your head, especially knowing that all your friends are still out there. As hard as it was to be out there when all my friends had gone home, I rather that than be home with all my frinds in WDW. Just my 2c. Ona x
I would efinitely not shorten either, you will regret it at some point!!! Live it up to the fullest and try to accept it whenthe ride is over : :'(
I have absolutely no intention of shortening my contract. As soon as I saw that I was going to be there slightly less than a year, I wanted to know how to extend. I hoping that because the summer is busy down there it might make it easier to extend into summer 2006, but we'll see. Sandra
Myself and another girl in Canada Merch, tried and tried and tried to extend...but no luck. We finished at the end of July and were hoping the summer would help us too. Shan
