I love being an alumni and part of the DCP Facebook pages because it gives me the opportunity to answer questions! Most questions I see are about housing, and how to choose your apartment. Choosing your housing complex is not like picking your dorm or house hunters, where you'll pick exactly what you want and know everything ahead of time. I'm going to walk you through the process, based on what I remember from last year, and changes I've heard about since then. You'll be invited to select your housing preferences 2-3 weeks before your check in date, but there are things you can do in the months before that! There are two things you should do in preparation to pick your housing. I've listed these as "Step 1" and "Step 2" but I recommend doing them simultaneously.
Now that you've been accepted you're probably thinking about all the fun you'll be having, and the most inexpensive way to have all that fun! In addition to the complimentary tickets you'll receive (you can learn more about those here), there are lots more discounts to take advantage of as a cast member. Food DiscountsYou can find discounts on food if you know where to look. You receive cast member discounts from many local restaurants, always ask when you go out to eat. My favorite outside vendor discounts are 20% off at Ghirardeli, $2 Wetzel's Pretzels, and $4.99 buffet at Cici's pizza. Most dining locations in Disney springs offer cast member discounts. You can also find discounts at some Disney operated dining locations:
40% off at: ESPN Club at The Boardwalk Resort (lunch only, Monday - Friday) Grand Floridian Cafe at the Grand Floridian (lunch only) Olivia's Cafe at The Old Key West Resort (Breakfast and Lunch) Sanaa at Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas (Lunch) Captain's Grille at The Yacht Club (lunch only) Trail's End Restaurant at Fort Wilderness Resort (breakfast and lunch, this is my favorite!) Trattoria al Forno at the Boardwalk (breakfast only) The Wave at the Contemporary Resort (Breakfast and lunch) Wispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge (Lunch only) As I wait anxiously for the next 120 days to pass before I arrive at Disney, I pass my time pinning ideas for my apartment and roommate gifts. I've collected some of my favorite pins for you! Display Your EarsDuring your program you'll assemble quite a collection of ears! You'll get one pair at traditions and one at graduation, and you'll probably buy more to wear in the parks. I have 4 sets of Minnie ears and my two ear hats. I've spent a lot of time trying to come up with the best way to display them, and this is the cutest! Pin it!
As more and more people are being accepted every week, a common question being asked is "how do complementary tickets work?" This article will be a part of a series (featured in a new "getting started" tab) about perks and benefits of the Disney College Program. You'll also see articles on discounts, events, classes, and more. This article will answer the who, what, where, when, and how of using the tickets, as well as how to earn them. What are free tickets? What do they do?During the course of your program, you will earn a number of tickets. Each ticket is loaded onto its own card, card design pictured at the top of this article. Each ticket, each card, is good for one person to get into the parks (as many as they want) for one day. You can use them all on the same person or all on different people, all on the same day or all on different days, or any combination of people and days. I used four to take my sister with me to the parks for 4 days during spring break and 3 to take my best friend with me to the parks in May.
On Friday, September 16, I was accepted for a second program as a Quick Service Food and Beverage Hostess in Walt Disney World! I applied the first day applications came out, took my WBI the next day, and had my PI on August 25. Two days ago, Friday, September 23rd, I paid my fees and chose my dates. Right now my dates are January 10th through May 17th, but I might have to change them later. This time, I am hoping for a 2 bedroom 5 person apartment in The Commons. I'm hoping to get to live with Caileigh, a friend from my last program, and Emily, my best friend from high school. Once they get accepted I might have to change my dates so we can all live together, but that's all good with me, as long as I get to live with two people I love so dearly! I am most looking forward to being a part of the Cru community again and hopefully getting to lead a bible study and disciple some women this time. I also would really like to take the Advanced Hospitality Management class and participate in some of the networking events. There are a number of reasons why I chose to participate in a second program. During my last program, I was an education major, but I just changed my degree to hospitality and tourism and transferred to a new school that can give me internship credit. There are a lot of opportunities at the DCP that I didn't take advantage of because I was an education major, now that I'm considering a more permanent career with Disney, I would like to take advantage of those opportunities. If you have other questions about my second program, why I decided to do a second program, or about the 2017 program in general, please comment below!
In my last post, you read about what I did the days before I checked in. After check in I had four more days before traditions and free park admission, four more days to fill with things besides the parks! What did I do? Disney SpringsI think I went to Disney Springs every single day that week! Even after I had my Self Admission Pass to get into the parks I still went to Disney Springs 1-2 times a week. Disney Springs is one of my favorite places in Disney, if you were to compare it to the parks, it'd probably be my third favorite! I like to go into the Ghirardeli store and get free chocolate (they hand it out at the door) and then go into the Ice Cream Shoppe section and order a cup of black cherry ice cream with hot fudge on top. (They also have very good discounts for cast members once you get your blue ID at traditions, sometimes they'll give you the discount with only your housing ID too, this goes for most 3rd party sellers at Disney Springs.) I liked to wander around the World of Disney store and plan what I would buy once I had my blue ID and could get the discount. My other favorite locations in Disney Springs are the Lego store, Wetzel's Pretzels ($2 pretzels for CMs), and Earl of Sandwich. Toward the end of my program they added a whole new section, the Town Center, with cool places like Sprinkles Cupcakes and Vera Bradley. Don't forget to check out the local entertainment when you're there too, my favorite is the dance competition or lip sync battle at the stage in front of WOD.
This time last year I still didn't think I'd get the opportunity to interview for the Disney College Program, I wasn't extended the offer to schedule a phone interview until the end of September. Fast forward to the end of January when I finally make the step to venture out on my own. I didn't know anyone, I had a few friends I'd met on the Facebook group and was excited to meet, but unlike moving to college, I really didn't know anyone. I have a few uncles in Florida but both live a few hours from Orlando so I was really venturing out all on my own for the first time. I flew back from Minnesota to New Mexico a week before I had to leave for Disney. I started packing up all my belongings and wrapping up loose ends. I had to say goodbye to lots of friends and return some of my work uniforms. This week flew by faster than I ever guessed it could! The hardest part was going to my last Nav night for the time being and saying goodbye to all my friends there.
I love telling funny stories about my last program, this is one I've been telling my coworkers all week. I don't know why I remembered it, but it's definitely one of my favorites! So I arrived for my shift, a PM shift from 3:30 until midnight. I go to the meeting and learn that I'm scheduled for Yacht Lobby (which includes the lobby and the lobby bathroom and steakhouse bathroom). After the meeting I head right down to check my bathrooms since I know usually they don't get checked from 3pm until I get there. I go to check the lobby bathroom first since I know it has more traffic at this time of day. As I walk in I'm hit with an overwhelming smell...of crap! (Pardon my language, it just makes the story so much funnier!) I figure someone just had rather smelly dump, nothing out of the ordinary. I spray some Zero Odor which gets rid of and masks smells. After doing the rest of the things I usually do when I check restrooms I leave to check the other restroom. Half an hour later (I always check my restrooms every half hour) I return to check the restroom and it still smells! I figure there must be a diaper in the trashcan so I empty the trashcans, all of them and the sanitary bins! I spray more zero odor and move on. I return another half an hour later, it still smells! At this point I'm very confused, it must be on the toilet or something! I cleaned all the toilets super clean (a way they're only cleaned usually by 3rd shift), I did find some crap smooshed in between the seat and toilet in one of the stalls so I sprayed some more zero odor again and moved on. Once more, I returned to check the bathroom and it still smells! At this point I'm considering radioing for my coordinator because I'm so confused. As I'm looking in the stalls for something I might have missed my foot slides and I realize there's crap on the floor. This bathroom has tile floors and it was smooshed in so it just blended in. I mop the floor really well, spray some more zero odor and say a prayer before leaving. When I return it finally smells fine! Hallelujah! So that's the story of the day I cleaned crap off the floor. Do you have a funny story from your CP? Do you have a funny story about cleaning? Comment them below!
Last program I tried lots of foods at Disney. I want to eat at many of those again during my next program. Last program I didn't have a food bucket list (in order to save money), but this time I do! There are lots of places I want to try if I'm accepted for the program again! Magic KingdomBe Our Guest (I ate here for lunch once, it was great!)
The Crystal Palace Gaston's Tavern (I am forever in love with this place! I love Gaston!) Pecos Bill's Tall Tale Inn (I ate here my first time in MK, I want to do that again) Pinocchio Village Haus (My favorite quick service location ever!) Plaza Ice Cream Plaza (I love it here!) Sleepy Hollow (a breakfast of nutella and fruit waffles is the perfect way to start a full day in MK) Wishes Dessert Party (this is mostly just a dream because it's way too expensive!) In the last two posts I talked about high need and high volume roles. These are other roles that are offered for CPs although only a handful or a few people are accepted for these roles. Obviously people are accepted for these roles every season however the odds of it are rare or uncommon. Fair warning: since these are more uncommon roles I might not know much about them, if that's the case, I'll try to include lots of references! Bell ServicesBell Services During my last program, a few of my friends worked bell services. The two things they usually did were working at the bell services desks and transporting bags between resorts. Hours: My friends usually got the full 40 hours and it was fairly easy to trade shifts. Locations: Resorts Pros: Not too much too do, where I worked they usually watched youtube videos during their entire shift, bell services isnt' open late, it's the job of Esteban Julio Ricardo Montoya Del Rosa Ramirez! Cons: It can become boring, you work in a resort Resources: waltdisneywongdcp.blogspot.com |
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