It's Kind of Fun to Do the Impossible - A 12 Month CRP Report

[Windsor Princesses]

"I AM ON MY WAY,
I CAN GO THE DISTANCE"

Hello everyone! I'm Danielle and I am about to begin the most amazing experience of my life!
Working at Walt Disney World!!!



I have been given the opportunity to participate in the Cultural Representative Program (CRP) for 12 months at the Canada Pavilion in EPCOT.
It has been a lifelong dream of mine to work at Walt Disney World (quite literally, my kindergarten books are filled with dreams of me becoming a cast member) and now my dream is finally coming true.
For those of you who haven’t read any of my TRs before, Hi I’m Danielle!! For those of you who have, thanks for moseying on back I promise not to disappoint you!
I have been going to Walt Disney World once or twice a year since I was 7 months old. Yup, my parents started me young, and I can’t thank them enough!
Disney means everything to me, and I am so very blessed to have been able to experience it through my whole life. It gets me through stressful times and through most problems that I face on a daily basis – may it be as a happy distraction or as a source of inspiration and guidance. That is why this CRP experience is so important and meaningful to me, and why I want to share it with all of you.
Since there is barely any information here on the DIS about international programs I hope to be able to use this as a way to not only share all of the amazing adventures and magical memories I am going to make during this program, but also to give information and insight about the CRP program to all the other international DISers out there.
Please feel free to ask questions and comment any time, I will do my best to write each and every one of you back. Plus all of your comments will help inspire me to keep recording my journey on here to share with all of you.

For anyone who wants to follow this CRP adventure on a more instant basis both my twitter and instagram are d__clark.
I'm a supply teacher so I have it on private in attempt to keep it hidden from the kids, so just request and I'll let you in no problemmo!

These views and opinions are my own and do not reflect those of the WDW company
​

 

[Windsor Princesses]

Table of Contents​

The Cast
​

What it's All About
Read Life Update
The Application Process
Packing Up My Life
More of the Application Process
The Opportunity List
The Offer

​

 

[Windsor Princesses]

The Cast
I assume I’ll be meeting lots of amazing people during my 12 months working for my main mouse in WDW I figured some cast introductions would be helpful.
As I meet more people throughout my program I’ll add them in here.

Lauren



Lauren is my sister, and some of you may know her from the DIS. We actually share this account because it was easier since we lived together… we’ll have to figure out some sort of colour coded thing on here now, or maybe she can just make her own account… who knows.
Either way she is almost as obsessed with Disney as me, and is extremely jealous that I am leaving her for a whole 12 months to go live in our happy place, and is planning on visiting quite often.
She has been with me on all but one of my copious amounts of WDW trips throughout my entire life, and the two of us live together. Needless to say, it should be an interesting 12 months across the continent from her.

Brendan


Brendan is my prince charming. We are what some would call high school sweethearts, and have been together for the last 9 years. He has never been to WDW, or even Florida before (I know I know, what could I possibly see in him?! He’s just a busy guy, and never went when he was younger). But that is about to change, he’s going to go from never setting foot in Florida to practically living here with the amount of visits we have planned.
Although he has never been to WDW himself, he completely understands that it is a gigantic part in my life, and is just as excited as I am (maybe even more) to get to finally experience it with me.



​

 

[katt789]

I'm SO IN!! I have been searching for CRP info on here with not really any luck!! I start in Oct!!
Can't wait to read all about it and hear your stories! When do you start??

 

[Windsor Princesses]

I'm SO IN!! I have been searching for CRP info on here with not really any luck!! I start in Oct!!
Can't wait to read all about it and hear your stories! When do you start??

I know the feeling, I was desperate for any kind of CRP information, so I'm relay hoping this helps people!
I start in July, so I'm just getting all of my final things ready for the big move. I can't wait to see you down there!​

 

[amberg93]

Totally in! I can't wait to hear all about it. My DW and I wanted to do CRP but since I'm an immigrant, I don't qualify and it just gets complicated because she's a Canadian citizen and I'm a US one. But now I can live vicariously through your report

 

[Windsor Princesses]

Totally in! I can't wait to hear all about it. My DW and I wanted to do CRP but since I'm an immigrant, I don't qualify and it just gets complicated because she's a Canadian citizen and I'm a US one. But now I can live vicariously through your report

Welcome, I'm so happy to have you joining me on this amazing journey! It sure can get tricky and complicated applying with Disney if you aren't a born and raised American, but they do have some amazing opportunities if you fit in the right category. ​

 

[Windsor Princesses]

WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT

I have had tons and tons of people ask me exactly what it is I am going to do and what this program is all about. So here it goes.

Disney offers two types of programs for international cast members; there is the International College Program (ICP) and the Cultural Representative Program (CRP). The ICP runs over the summer for roughly 3 months, and the CRP runs over the course of a year for 12 months.

Obviously when I was weighing my options for which program to choose I leaned drastically towards the one that kept me home in my happy place for a whole year, as opposed to just a few short months.

The main difference between the two programs (besides the obvious lengths of time) is what your role can be with the WDW Company. If you are an ICP you receive a different visa, which allows you to work in pretty much any role in any park (if your goal is entertainment this is the program for you). With the CRP you are there on a cultural exchange visa (allowing you to stay for the entirety of the year) which restricts you to working in areas of the park that solely reflect your country. Because I am from Canada this limits me to just the Canadian Pavilion at EPCOT; however other countries can work other places (such as the AKL) if that place is reflective of their countries portrayed culture.

Next I’ll be walking you through the application and interview process that I experienced.​

 

[Windsor Princesses]

Real Life Update

It is just one week until I pack everything into my car and drive down to sunny old Florida!! I am so excited but I still have so much left to do. I have to figure out a way to pack a year’s worth of things into just one car. So if anyone has any suggestions on how to make that happen please share them with me. I am stumped!
I still need to get my health coverage for the first four months of my year. Disney doesn’t allow for CRPs to opt into their health insurance until after the first four months of their program; however, we are required to have some form of health coverage during those first four months or else we can’t begin working.
I seem to have a good bye party with a different group of people every night, which is really fun but really sad at the same time. There are lots of people I am going to miss while I’m gone, which is probably the most difficult part of this whole program.
But the bright side (and believe me it is a very bright side) I am moving to Disney World for a whole year in just 7 days!!!!!​

 

[katt789]

So excited that you're taking off so soon!!I know you're going to have a blast!!

 

[reelmom]

How exciting! Heading over to instagram and twitter so I can follow there also.

 

[Windsor Princesses]

How exciting! Heading over to instagram and twitter so I can follow there also.

I'll be updating on there much more regularly once Saturday comes! I am so excited!!

So excited that you're taking off so soon!!I know you're going to have a blast!!

Thanks!! It's going to be the most adventurous year of my life, that's for sure!! I can't wait to get it started!​

 

[tinkerbells mum]

Wow sounds so exciting can't wait to hear all about it xx

 

[briar_rose_59]

Real Life Update

It is just one week until I pack everything into my car and drive down to sunny old Florida!! I am so excited but I still have so much left to do. I have to figure out a way to pack a year’s worth of things into just one car. So if anyone has any suggestions on how to make that happen please share them with me. I am stumped!​

​

As a former ICP (also from Windsor! Go figure!!!) my best advice is: DON'T!!! I packed what I figured would be about half of what I would need for my 6 month program and didn't even touch half of it. You WILL end up buying stuff at the outlet malls nearby and Property Control/Cast Connection will be calling to you every day! Pretty sure Disney made around half of each paycheque I got back from me going to those two...

I still need to get my health coverage for the first four months of my year. Disney doesn’t allow for CRPs to opt into their health insurance until after the first four months of their program; however, we are required to have some form of health coverage during those first four months or else we can’t begin working.

Can't really help with that, sorry, ICP had a specific insurance we had to buy into (which was completely pointless, but that's beside the point!).

I seem to have a good bye party with a different group of people every night, which is really fun but really sad at the same time. There are lots of people I am going to miss while I’m gone, which is probably the most difficult part of this whole program.
But the bright side (and believe me it is a very bright side) I am moving to Disney World for a whole year in just 7 days!!!!![/COLOR][/CENTER]

Definitely enjoy spending time with those close to you before you go! It's easy to get homesick down there but like you said, you've got all of Disney World to keep you occupied!!!

I remember seeing all of the posts Disney was making a while back about applying for CRP but I wimped out (mostly because I've only lived in Ontario and kept hearing from people that got turned down for that very reason), so I will also be living vicariously through you!

If you have ANY questions about anything down there feel free to ask and I can try to help you out though! Like I said, different programs, but a lot of things are shared between them!

And have an AMAZING program!!!

 

[amberg93]

It's getting so close! I bet you can't wait

 

[Credit Man]

Looking forward to your year long adventure. Have a magical time.

 

[Windsor Princesses]

Looking forward to your year long adventure. Have a magical time.

Thanks so much Credit Man!! I start driving down in just 4 days, hopefully everything will be amazing!​

 

[Windsor Princesses]

THE APPLICATION PROCESS

This application process was the longest thing I have ever done in my life! You sure do have to really want it because it was torture waiting every single day to possibly hear something.

I applied in August 2012 after I received some help from Alicia (Leasha_Loves_Disney) about what programs were available for people not from the States. She told me about the international website and the different programs that were on there.
I finished my resume and applied right away that night, I think I stayed up until 2 in the morning just trying to finish everything because I was too excited to sleep!

When I applied Disney was still recruiting through an outside source called Yummy Jobs, starting this year in 2014 they realized that they could do the recruitment themselves and slowly Yummy Jobs has been disappearing from my contacts, and the new applicants are strictly in contact with only Disney recruitment. This hasn’t changed much accept for the fact that they hold multiple interviews a year instead of just one.

After you send in your application you hear absolutely nothing until after the application window closes; for me that was sometime at the end of September. Once they have received all of the applications they send out emails to those who have passed this web based portion of the application process to sign up for a phone interview. (The phone interview is now a Skype interview since Disney recruitment has taken over). My phone interview was set up for mid/late October. So I did what any crazy hopeful cast member would do and prepped like I had nothing else to do. I researched what previous CRP phone interview questions were and wrote all of my answers out, everything was colour coded and I just read them over and over again.

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When it came time for my phone interview I had read them so many times that I don’t even think I glanced at them even once, but I felt so much better to have them there with me.
Some of the questions were things like…

• Tell us one fun fact about your home town.
• How will you handle the Florida sun and heat?
• Have you ever lived with other people or with a roommate and how will you handle that living situation?
• Why do you want to work for the WDW company?

After the phone interview was finished you again heard nothing until all of the other phone interviews were finished in November. If you got past the phone interview stage then you were invited to the Face to face interviews. When I applied there were two being held, one in Montreal, QC on February 1st and one in Vancouver, BC on March 1st. I opted for the Montreal interview since it would be the less expensive option (which ended up only costing me around $600 for travel and hotel costs). Like I said, you had to really want this to take part in this program to take part in it since a lot of time and money was required just during the application process alone.​

 

[katt789]

Awe man, the application process seems like it was so much more hectic for you!! That's insane!! Glad you toughed through all the waiting and put all the effort into it! It all worked out in the end!!

 

[11point5]

OMG I'm so excited to have found this thread! You're right, there is very little info out there from people who've done the international programs at Disney! I have my Skype interview for the Cultural Rep Program next Friday (July 11th) and I have been trying to research interview questions and get prepped as much as I can. LOVE your colour-coded notes!! I need to do that haha
Can't wait to read more about your exciting experience!! You're leaving for Florida SO SOON!!