Disney College Program Spring '11 Trip Report

[Thumper10]

Let me just begin by saying that my college program experience was the BEST experience of my life! If anyone out there is on the fence about doing, go for it. I had an amazing time spending four and a half months in Disney…there’s no way I’ll be able to include all of my great memories in one trip report but I’ll try my best to give as much detail as I can…and if there’s anyone out there with questions about how the program works, feel free to ask! I’d be more than happy to help out!
I’m going to try to split this report up by months since I was there for such a long period of time.

[Thumper10]

January 2011

My boyfriend Nate and I left cold, snowy Indiana late at night on January 23 to begin our long drive to Disney. My car was bursting at the seams with the ridiculous amount of stuff we had packed (mostly mine of course, lol) and it seemed to take us forever to get everything to fit inside of it. It was a really emotional night for me, as it was going to be my first time away from home, and it was super hard to say goodbye to my family knowing that I wouldn’t be able to see them every day like I’m so used to. The drive went pretty well, except the ugly snow storm we hit after only about thirty minutes on the road and we made it safely to Louisville for some sleep after our first night of driving. We spent the majority of the next day driving, having a good time singing to our music and taking in all the beautiful scenery, especially in Tennessee. The night of the 24th we stopped in Valdosta, Georgia with most of our drive out of the way. We made it to Disney (yay!!) in the early afternoon of the 25th. Our check-in for the college program wasn’t until the next day so I had booked us a room at the Polynesian for the night, definitely an exciting splurge for us. Disney was offering a 40% off deal at the time that I booked it, and since it was only for one night, Nate and I figured why not take advantage. The Poly is sooooo beautiful and we ended up visiting it numerous more times during our CP. We had a first floor room in the Rarotonga house with a nice patio right outside our back door. The room was very pretty and definitely a step-up from the moderate and value resorts. We spent the remainder of our day relaxing and taking in the excitement of finally being in Disney once again. We ended up taking out one of the small Sea Raycer boats onto the Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake, which was a lot of fun for both of us. We also stopped by DtD for a bit and then came back to the Poly to walk the path over the GF, where I got to explore the Wedding Pavilion….so gorgeous! Once we were done we settled back in our room for night so that we could be well-rested to start our exciting journey the next day!

[Thumper10]

We had to get up very early on check-in day to secure the apartments that we wanted. We ended up being extremely fortunate and both ended up in 3 bedroom apartments at Chatham Square...just what we wanted. We also ended up being placed in the same building, which I am still amazed by, since there are 30 buildings in Chatham alone! I got to meet my roommate during the check-in process, and we ended up getting along great throughout the whole program. We spent the remainder of the day moving in to our new apartments and meeting the rest of our roommates. I lived with 5 other girls and we all got along well together, which was great! I had been nervous about living with people that I didn’t know, but overall my roommate experience was nothing but positive. Chatham was a great place to live- very pretty, quiet, and really ended up feeling like home to me.

[Thumper10]

We made it!!


View from our room at the Poly


Nate and I out on the Sea Raycer


View while on the lake

[joanna71985]

Great TR so far! Glad you had a good time on the CP

[Jensspark]

I can't wait to read all about your experience! My daughter will be a HS Senior this year and after a year or so in college she wants to do the college program. I will definitely share your experience with her.

[Yensid23]

Can't wait to hear more. I regret that I didn't participate in the program while I was in college.

[Chrissy&Tayen]

awesome girl i have been following you on facebook.. i'm so glad you had a great time.. i'm in hair dressing school can i apply i think i have like 500 hours left of school.. lol

[petals3485]

I have a question.. Do you know for to do the college program can you be in your final year or do you have to be going back to college the year after?

[Thumper10]

Thanks everyone! I'll post some more soon!

Yes you can be in your final year, the only application requirement is that you are enrolled in college at the time that you apply.

[petals3485]

Yes you can be in your final year, the only application requirement is that you are enrolled in college at the time that you apply.

Oh score!! I'm going back to college in September to do a Masters and I'm soooooooooooooo applying for this!

[Thumper10]

Finally I’ve found some time to update!
The few days after my check-in at Chatham were a whirlwind of excitement—getting to know my roommates, playing in the parks, and enjoying living on my own. I also had to go to Disney’s casting building (right across the street from DTD for those who don’t know), where I became an official cast member of the Walt Disney World Resort! So exciting. Going through casting was sort of a long process with all of the new CP’s I was squished in there with. I kept myself entertained by taking in all the of awesome architecture of the building—it really is a pretty neat place to check out. Fun fact- the doorknob to the entrance of Casting is the doorknob from Alice in Wonderland. Pretty cool. At Casting I learned that my job would be working at Epcot doing Outdoor Foods…I wasn’t exactly thrilled about this but I wasn’t super upset either…just unsure about how much fun it would be to sell Mickey Premiums in the Florida heat but never get to be the one eating them. I’ll update more later about how my job turned out though. Nate learned that he would be doing bell services at Port Orleans which he was pretty happy about. Nate had only been to Disney once before (my family took him a few months before our CP) and we stayed at POR, so he was happy that he was familiar with where he’d be working.

[Thumper10]

Here is my lovely little home at Chatham.

Our living room


Our balcony door in the living room (I lived on the second floor out of 3)


Balcony


I couldn't have hoped for a better building to live in. Builiding 28 was near the back of the property and had a large field on the backside of it right near the pool and weight room. The mailboxes were also right outside my door. Chatham is a pretty big complex so it was definitely convenient to have everything right next to me.

Kitchen


View looking from the living room

The front door is next to that small set of tile you see on the right side next to the kitchen. There is also a bedroom on the left wall that you can't see the entrance to in this picture. Each of the three bedrooms had its own attached bathroom so that was super nice with six girls living in one space.

[Thumper10]

Dining room


Our little computer area in the hallway


My room! (I lived on the purple side)




We even had a nice walk-in closet


Bathroom..our closet is right behind that bathroom door

[Thumper10]

This is a bit off topic, but I'm so excited about it that I'd love to share. During my CP I knew that I definitely didn't want to go home, but as I knew I had to, I became determined to figure out how I could possibly maintain my CM status. Not to mention that I had grown to love ODF so much that the thought of leaving my job crushed me. I thought about extending my program, but I'm so close to graduating from school I decided that it'd probably be unwise to let myself get too attached to ODF and then not want to even go back to school. I then decided I would go seasonal, but the requirements of keeping a seasonal status really didn't work out with my school schedule. When I got home from my CP, I applied for a campus rep position and had an interview via Skype recently. I just learned that Nate and I both got the position and couldn't be more thrilled!! We're responsible for representing and promoting the Disney College Program at our school and regain our status as Disney cast members!! We get our Disney perks back (soooooooo happy about that...its got me planning our next vacation) and we are able to go down to work whenever it fits in our schedule! It's a win situation all around for us!