5 months in the Most Magical Place on Earth...my College Program TR

[Bayoumouse]

I am hooked! Can't wait to hear more

 

[heaven2dc]

I was so excited to see your TR and read all about your CP experience! I have applied to several undergraduate internships in California which seem so different than the CP program in WDW. (The ones I've applied for are not working at Disneyland). Would you mind if I pm'd you with a few questions? (In my dashboard, the hiring status says "in progress" on five of them and I have no idea what that means!)

Congrats on your engagement, wedding and CP program working in Cinderella's castle!

 

[spiroff.natasha]

sounds like you had an awesome time! I wish I got to do the CP when I was in college

It was the best! I've been loving your TR by the way ​

 

[spiroff.natasha]

I am enjoying your report! I am interested in doing the College Program so seeing this is really helping! I am really nervous as I am not away from my family very often and we are really close. So I am wondering was it hard from you to be away from family?

How cool! I am really close to my family as well but it was ok The first few weeks I was SO excited to be down there, then I kind of hit a slow point where I really missed my family and wondered if I made the right decision...that only lasted for about a week though After I was done sulking, I realized that it was such an amazing experience and I really did have the time of my life! Visits from family help too ​

 

[spiroff.natasha]

Loving your report! The casting building is so pretty!

Thank you! Isn't it? I LOVED the Casting building, it's exactly what I imagined Disney offices to be like ​

 

[spiroff.natasha]

I am hooked! Can't wait to hear more

welcome! ​

 

[spiroff.natasha]

I was so excited to see your TR and read all about your CP experience! I have applied to several undergraduate internships in California which seem so different than the CP program in WDW. (The ones I've applied for are not working at Disneyland). Would you mind if I pm'd you with a few questions? (In my dashboard, the hiring status says "in progress" on five of them and I have no idea what that means!)

Congrats on your engagement, wedding and CP program working in Cinderella's castle!

Thanks for all the well-wishes Definitely send me a PM with any questions that you have! I would be happy to answer whatever I can! What internships did you apply for? There are some really cool ones at the studios here in Burbank ​

 

[TinkerbellinNY6]

How cool! I am really close to my family as well but it was ok The first few weeks I was SO excited to be down there, then I kind of hit a slow point where I really missed my family and wondered if I made the right decision...that only lasted for about a week though After I was done sulking, I realized that it was such an amazing experience and I really did have the time of my life! Visits from family help too ​

It will help for me that my cousin is going to apply with me! And my mom already said that she would come vist multiple times while I am there

 

[spiroff.natasha]

My mommy picked me up from the casting building and we got a quick lunch at Chick-Fil-A (yummmm) I think we shared some nuggets…remember, we have an ADR coming up tonight!

We went to Chatham and she showed me my apartment. We were the first ones back so we took some pictures…

Living room

The kitchen from my bedroom

This is outside of my apartment..looking towards the front of the complex

This is building 23 my apartment is the one on the bottom floor

The other girls and their families started showing up and we were unpacking.

Belle’s mom cleaned the apartment up and down (which was totally unnecessary, don't want you to think we move into dirty apartments! ) while we unpacked.

My side of the room was pretty pathetic compared to how much stuff Belle had. And beyond that, Katie and Lisa both lived close enough to drive so their room was so cute and homey My mom felt bad but I was really limited on space since we flew haha.

We decided to make it a little more cozy we would go buy a cute lamp for my nightstand so later on we went to Ikea to get one. I was easily done unpacking before the other girls so mommy and I said adios for the night and headed to Ikea! After we did some shopping, we went back to the POP to freshen up before dinner. I also had to visit the front desk and pick up a package that Alex had sent me…my wallet!

I’m not sure how it happened but I left my wallet at mommy’s house when we left for the airport. Alex ended up having to overnight it which cost him a pretty penny I picked up the package from the front desk and found this cute note inside:

Mommy and I got ready for dinner and headed off to our ADR at…OHANA! It was our first time eating there for dinner and boy, were we excited. We had both drooled over the photos on the DIS and couldn’t wait to try it for ourselves.

We were seated right on time and had a great seat by the window The meal was amazing and definitely blew our expectations out of the water.

After dinner, mommy and I waddled out to the beach at the Polynesian and watched Wishes. Such a wonderful end to a great day!

​

 

[spiroff.natasha]

It will help for me that my cousin is going to apply with me! And my mom already said that she would come vist multiple times while I am there

That will definitely help! And I'm sure your mom will be excited to take some trips to WDW

 

[mauigal]

So far so good...I have lots of pictures if you need any!!

 

[MinnieJay]

haha yea, I could write for weeks and never really get out the FULL experience. Where did you work?​

All Star Resorts Merch. Fall '10-Spring-'11 (geesh...seems so long ago )

 

[wishing4PA]

Thanks for this TR! I haven't read a lot of personal reports on the CP, so this will be enlightening. Maybe I can point DD7 in the right direction...

I love the casting building photos. Somehow I expected Disney would have some sort of ugly warehouse/box style building for this, being behind the scenes and all that. I'm glad it is pretty!

Keep your fingers on the keyboard and write some more!

 

[4chickadees]

Thanks so much for sharing! I love reading about your experience!

 

[mtmbyck]

Really enjoying this read. I am 47 years old now but in 1985 I applied for the college program. I am Canadian and knew full well that I'd be serving food at the Canadian restaurant (which at that time was not the beautiful Le Cellier but an ugly cafeteria style place). Like you I love Disney and it was my dream to spend a few months there working. The CP staff came to my University. In 1985 they got away with a lot more appearance screening - I recall that I always thought all of the beautiful people worked at Disney. natural beauty as no makeup was allowed. So the first thing the interviewer asked me was "do you always wear that much eye makeup". And honestly that's all I remember of the experience other than I walked away feeling I wasn't " pretty" enough to work at Disney.

So fast forward 17 years and my DH, and DDs go every year and Disney is our favorite place in the world to be together.

I often wonder if I would love it as much having worked there. I will also mention that a girlfriend and I went one Halloween (maybe 1986 or 87) and we got to know the EPCOT staff and were invited to their Halloween staff party at the residence (I think it was called Buena Vista Village back then). It was so awesome. They purposely put all different nations in a condo together. It was like partying with the United Nations!

Keep posting your experience so this old girl can live it through your eyes.

 

[jojosmom23]

As a disney freak I love reading this. I always love the behind the scenes stuff. WHen we honeymooned in disney we took the keys to the world tour and loved all the underground lairs and loved being able to see where "characters" dressed and where all the floats were stored. This is great and im enjoying your writing style also. Jenn

 

[spiroff.natasha]

Thanks for this TR! I haven't read a lot of personal reports on the CP, so this will be enlightening. Maybe I can point DD7 in the right direction...

I love the casting building photos. Somehow I expected Disney would have some sort of ugly warehouse/box style building for this, being behind the scenes and all that. I'm glad it is pretty!

Keep your fingers on the keyboard and write some more!

Welcome!! I'm glad casting is pretty too I was really surprised (and pleased!!) with how much of the "backstage" areas were disneyfied. The least "disney" area that I came across was the CRT breakroom

I'm happy that you are enjoying so far! ​

 

[spiroff.natasha]

Thanks so much for sharing! I love reading about your experience!

Of course! I'm glad that you are enjoying and I'm loving being able to relive the my experiences through this TR ​

 

[spiroff.natasha]

Really enjoying this read. I am 47 years old now but in 1985 I applied for the college program. I am Canadian and knew full well that I'd be serving food at the Canadian restaurant (which at that time was not the beautiful Le Cellier but an ugly cafeteria style place). Like you I love Disney and it was my dream to spend a few months there working. The CP staff came to my University. In 1985 they got away with a lot more appearance screening - I recall that I always thought all of the beautiful people worked at Disney. natural beauty as no makeup was allowed. So the first thing the interviewer asked me was "do you always wear that much eye makeup". And honestly that's all I remember of the experience other than I walked away feeling I wasn't " pretty" enough to work at Disney.

So fast forward 17 years and my DH, and DDs go every year and Disney is our favorite place in the world to be together.

I often wonder if I would love it as much having worked there. I will also mention that a girlfriend and I went one Halloween (maybe 1986 or 87) and we got to know the EPCOT staff and were invited to their Halloween staff party at the residence (I think it was called Buena Vista Village back then). It was so awesome. They purposely put all different nations in a condo together. It was like partying with the United Nations!

Keep posting your experience so this old girl can live it through your eyes.

I'm sorry to hear about your experience with those recruiters! The "Disney look" portion of check-in was pretty intimidating but definitely not as bad as what you described!

I love that you and your family still visit and love it there. I am really looking forward to bringing my future children to share the magic

I am confident that you would still love WDW as much (if not more!!) if you would have worked there. Before I did the CP I wondered if it would ruin some of the magic but it only made it more special

(Most) international participants now live in a housing complex called "The Commons". While I never went to one, I heard that their parties were the best ​

 

[spiroff.natasha]

As a disney freak I love reading this. I always love the behind the scenes stuff. WHen we honeymooned in disney we took the keys to the world tour and loved all the underground lairs and loved being able to see where "characters" dressed and where all the floats were stored. This is great and im enjoying your writing style also. Jenn

I'm so jealous of your Keys to the Kingdom tour! I saw a lot of those groups in the utilidors and always wanted to take the tour myself Glad you are along for the ride!​