this is incorrect. all 4 of the apartments in Florida were built as "apartments". chatham, the commons, and patterson are all on long-term leases by disney. disney owns vista way, but it was built to be "sold off" or leased out if need be. disney housing can be contacted to verify this.
what disney is using in california is along the same lines as what they are doing with chatham, the commons, and patterson.
This is true to an extent, but what I meant is that the California apartments are A) Not entirely housing used by Disney; there are Disney and Non-Disney residents and B) The apartments are built in such a way that you can tell that one bedroom was clearly built as a Master Bedroom and the other just a regular bedroom.
jjlara21 said:
How is it in cali what were your experiences? What good things have you heard about housing? Have you heard bad things? Wat classes do you recommend taking I can choose right? Or how many do you have to take? Is it easy making friends? Will I have enough money after paying rent and stuff? Sorry for all the questions Im just nervous about the whole thing.
- I absolutely love the program. I'm a little bit biased in this area simply because I've lived here all my life, but this really has to be one of the best places to work. In terms of experiences they are many and varied. Our program is much smaller than the Florida one and as such I think of it more as a family. It's usually weird for regular cast members when they're walking around with me and I just know all these cast members from completely different areas of the park and resort. I was once told to "stop knowing people" by one of my trainers once because our short walk to the learning center took forever because I had to stop and hug people who I kept running into. The program has a big social calendar and with fun VoluntEARS events always going on, the great experiences are limitless, not to mention Academic Field Experiences. AFE's are events sponsored by the college program that are only for CP participants. They're many and varied and always fun. The one's that we've had so far that come to mind are: a Pyrotechnic launch tour of the park to see what goes into putting on our Fireworks show every night; a tour of the Burbank Walt Disney Studios; a tour of Imagineering, and I believe a Fantasmic! Tour is also in the works. We also have lots of other fun things planned, including walk throughs of attractions such as Splash Mountain, The Haunted Mansion, Indiana Jones Adventure and more, and experiences such as riding Space Mountain with both the lights on, and then again with all the lights off and all the sound off. I've had more fun here than I have almost any where else.
- In terms of housing, the apartments are really very very nice. They were all built only four or so months ago and they are all top of the line. Each unit has it's own combo washer/dryer unit and the counters are all granite. Most of the units even have a view from which you can see the top of the Tower of Terror and the Matterhorn. You're close to the park and close to three major freeways to get to various other fun locations.
- As far as bad things go, the only really bad thing I've heard is that there has been some drama amongst some of the residents, but the true I'm sure can be said for the Florida program, as well as almost any college dorm in the country.
- For classes that's a yes and a no. Depending on the length of your program, you may only be taking one class. If that's the case, it'll be the new class offered called Experimental Learning, more info is posted on the website. You may also get to choose to take another class. The classes offered are Marketing You, Organizational Leadership, Professional Development Series (Also known as The Business of Show Business), and The Leadership Speaker Series. The first two, MYOU and OrgLead are both recommended for credit with the American Council of Education. This term I've taken MYOU and the LSS. Marketing You is a class all about making yourself appealing to potential employers and skills that you would need to do so. You'll create a top of the line resumé as well as business cards, and go through such things as mock interviews and various personality tests to help figure out who you approach things and what you should work on. The class is graded and really is fun. The class is lead by Paul Solis who is really one of the greatest people I've ever met. He had a lot of life experiences to offer and really treats his students like children. On more than one ocassion me and other class mates have gone into the park to play with his kids (who are absolutely adorable by the way). The other class I took was the Leadership Speaker Series, which is a lecture class with no homework. It's motto is basically "Eleven Vice-Presidents in Elven Weeks" and it's true. Each week a different Vice-President will come to class and talk about their history with the company, their career history, their educational background, tips they have for you, and pitfalls to look out for and avoid. I'll be completely honest with you, some of these speakers can be a total snore. But in that same light, we've had some really fascinating and phenomanally interesting speakers. A few that come to mine are Tony Bruno, who is Vice-President of the
Disneyland Hotels and Downtown Disney District, Jenny Whitlock, who is Vice-President of Communications and Entertainment Programing for ABC, and another man, whose name escapes me at the moment, but who is Vice-President of all of Entertainment for all of Disney Parks and Resorts including all five resorts, the Hilton Head hotel, and the
Disney Cruise Lines. He was my personal favorite. The other two I can't really speak for as I'll be taking them once I return from Florida in January, but I've head good things about them as well.
- Friends will just happen. You wont make friends, because that implies some sort of effort. You'll just notice one second that you've made a dozen friends. After only six months here at The Diz (You'll learn to call it The Diz soon enough), over half of my friends on MySpace are cast members, and almost half of the contacts in my phone are from Disney (You can tell because when I put someone in my phone, I give them the last name of "Disney" so I can easily identify them [I.E. Matt Disney]. My phone sorts my contacts by last name and when I scroll through them it takes quite a while to get through all the Disneys). Trust me, there is no "making" of friends needed.
- Trust me, you'll be working more than enough hours to have a reasonable amount of spending money. Not only will you likely be working 40 hours a week, you'll also be working holidays and possibly third shifts. Holidays often come with Holiday pay, which may be as little as 75 cents more an hour, or as much as time and a half. Third Shifts are any shift that take place during the hours that the park is not in operation or close to it. Usually between the hours of 11pm and 8am or so. Most roles don't have Third Shifts but if you are doing ODV, there is a chance that you'll be working Third Shifts as there is a task called "Stocker" which takes place in a Third Shift. Third Shifts make 75 cents more an hour, which may not sound like much, but certainly adds up.
I hope that answers all of your questions! If you have any more please don't hesitate to ask!
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