Hi Nicole! I was interested in knowing more about the PI housing. How do you like it? Is it weird having so many roommates? Is it in a good location for most PIs? Thanks in advance!
I like PI housing so far. The rules are not as strict as CP housing, and it includes some light housekeeping every other week (so no fighting about who has to clean to toilet haha). It's a nice place in an AWESOME location... My drive to work (I work at Magic Kingdom) is literally five minutes. It was just really convenient to not have to worry about finding a place, one that might be able to do a shorter lease (because the future past 6 months is uncertain), getting furniture, and finding roommates I could trust to pay their portion of rent and bills on time.
I came straight from CP housing so I have the same number of roommates as I did before. They are all two bedrooms with 4 people. My actual roommate and I share pretty opposite schedules so we don't run into each other much. Honestly I work closing shifts almost every night so I don't get home until almost everyone else is asleep so the number of them doesn't bother me.
We do have a washer and dryer in unit which, after living on the third floor and having to lug my laundry up and down for sixth months, is a LIFESAVER.
My main gripe about PI housing is the cost. It's $135 a week. If you add that all up, that means our collective rent is $2,160 a month, which is insane, even with all utilities included. You could easily find somewhere else where you didn't have to share a room for less money than you pay here.
You also don't get to pick your roommates like we did in CP housing. It's pretty much random as far as I can tell, although there is a little roommate matching questionnaire thing we filled out (are you messy or clean, do you smoke and does it bother you if others do, etc).
But overall I'm happy here. It was just so. much. easier.
I'm coming for your job!!! haha Just kidding... kind of. Guest Relations was my top choice for role. So I've heard different things, but is there a second interview for guest relations or any of the Alumni positions? Do you get scheduled at different parks? Do you or can you be scheduled to give tours like keys to the kingdom or backstage magic? Do the GR PIs get trained to be VIP guides? Before accepting your role is it possible to find out if there is available housing? I don't want to give up my CP acceptance for the PI and then find out that there is no room in PI housing and end up not being able to do either. Do you sign up for PI housing online or is it whoever gets down to Florida first get the available rooms?
Sorry for so many questions!
I also want to know these answers!!! GR was my #1 choice
There was no second interview for GR, and as far as I've heard alumni only usually only has the one interview.
With GR you get a home, but you're able to pick up shifts somewhere else. For example, I'm Magic Kingdom GR, so I'll only ever get scheduled in MK, but if there's a shift on EHH for Animal Kingdom, or someone wants to give away their shift at Epcot, you can take it because GR is a global role. I haven't tried out another GR yet but I have some friends who have.
As for tours, yes, those all fall under GR. However, you can't audition for them until you're statused (which would happen if you stay on after your PI). I've heard that Epcot GR interns can audition for some of their tours (like the Segway), but that's the only park where you would be able to. I'm not Epcot so I don't really know how that works. And VIP tour guides usually have to be in GR for at least a year, although I've heard they're cutting down to 6 months. But either way, you can't give them as a PI.
As for housing, they asked me when they offered my the PI if I needed housing, and I said no (at that point I was going to live with a friend of mine). It wasn't until a few weeks later I decided I did want to live in PI housing but there was still room available. You sign up for it online after your acceptance. I'm not sure if there's a way to check if it's full before you accept, you'd have to ask your recruiter. But from my experience, as long as you don't wait until the last minute, you should be able to get a spot.
With all the new tech being rolled out, the GR position is changing a LOT right now... It's very exciting! MK has 29 interns right now, almost twice the usual amount, because of everything that's going on. GR positions are in City Hall and at the Window (though window training doesn't happen right away). With the new RFID tap-to-enter media, we also have GR at Park Entry for any issues there. Once MyMagic+ really rolls out, and the FastPass+ starts, we'll have a GR person at every FastPass+ station throughout the park. So definitely try to keep up with all the new tech stuff going on over here, because we're the ones that are going to have to know how to use or fix all of it!
