Category Archives: theme park life

Hey Caitlin :) I’m highly interested in the Disney college program but there’s a problem. I live in the UK so I’m confused about the whole thing. Is it really hard to get in? How much would you say it costs all together? Do you HAVE to be an actress?

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I LOVE DISNEY COLLEGE PROGRAM QUESTIONS!! 😀

#1: It’s really just a matter of what they’re looking for at the time that you apply. You put in an application and do an interview, and that’s that. There are some specific things they look for in an “ideal cast member,” so to speak, but really, it depends on what positions are open and what they need to fill.

#2: Um…I don’t know! You get paid- not terribly much, but your expenses are covered. Plus you can use the bus service instead of your own car.

#3: Absolutely not! 😀

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I know you’ve mentioned working at Disney before. Best Disney memory? (Either during a trip or as a cast member.) Do you like the characters? Have a favorite? (i.e. I love Stitch, but meeting Beast was probably the coolest part of my last trip there.)

Probably the day in my first college program when I was sent out to open at front usher at the Great Movie Ride for park open. Mickey walked out from the back to get ready for rope drop, and he saluted me. Just me. I nearly cried.

AND I LOVE THE CHARACTERS. Alice and Ariel are my favorite characters in general, but the stepsisters are probably the best characters to meet. And I met Merida on my trip back in June!

(we have the same hair)

The One with My Least Favorite Disney Attraction

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Rewind to the spring of 2006…

I was working at Disney World in Florida as a College Program cast member (specifically as a Great Movie Rider). I had never been to Disney’s Animal Kingdom before, so I went with a friend of mine.

We decided to go to the It’s Tough to be a Bug! attraction- it’s one of those sensory overload 3-D shows. Initially I was excited, because Bug’s Life is a good movie. As you can see from the photo, taken minutes before the show started, I seemed quite delighted. But I forgot a key issue.

I’m bugaphobic.

Well, specifically arachnophobic, but you know.

I thought I would be okay, but the show begins with a 3-D tarantula. I immediately screamed and yanked off my glasses. It was a cute, happy, smiley tarantula but still for the love of God it was a tarantula.

I put the glasses back on and thought I could get through the rest of the show, but then Hopper appeared, yapped about teaching the humans what it’s like to be a bug, and then shouted “BLACK WIDOWS ATTACK.”

Giant rubber spiders leaped down from the ceiling and danced around my head. I promptly screamed like a two-year-old tourist. Like literally, tears. Everywhere.

By the time the show was over and the seat underneath rumbled as the “bugs left the theater,” I was a sobbing, shaking mess.

My friend was mortified.

I had to go eat my body weight in ice cream afterwards.

Hey! I know you’re probably getting sick of all the Disney CollegeProgram questions, but I’m going to be doing the phone interview nextweek and I don’t know anybody who’s done the program :) Do you have anytips? Pretty much from what I’ve seen, I have to smile a lot..

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Yes! Definitely smile a lot. And speak as clearly as you can. You’ll be nervous, but try. 🙂

And if you know what job you want, don’t be afraid to tell them. Disney job placement is kind of a crapshoot, and if you don’t know what you want, you’ll probably end up merchandise or quick service, and if that’s not what you want, you’ll be sad. So don’t be afraid to speak up! Tell them you want Magic Kingdom attractions, or Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boutique, or whatever, and if you can, tell them why.

But yeah! Good luck, Disney anon! May pixie dust shower down upon you! 😀

If you made a DCP tumblr, I would totally follow it. And ask lots ofobnoxious questions, like "OH DEAR GOD, WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO ASK MEABOUT?" The only thing I remember anyone telling me about the phoneinterview is to make sure you smile, because Disney can *hear* yoursmile. Also, never say you want Quick-service, or you will 100% end upbeing Quick-service.

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So yeah…me and my friend Tara and my sister Lindsay are all former CPs.

I think we need to start a blog where we can answer all Disney College Program related questions and stuff. And tell stories about our experiences. And it would be awesome.

But yeah! Smile during your interview, even if it’s just on the phone. And if they ask you where you want to work, tell them where and why you want to work there. For my first interview, the other girl interviewing was just like “oh, yeah, I’ll work anywhere, I guess…” and I said “I want to work the Great Movie Ride,” and then told the recruiter the story about my first time riding it as a little girl.

I got GMR. The other girl got quick service at Port Orleans.

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Listening to the Fantasmic! soundtrack makes me homesick

I miss the smell of the pyro and the spray of the water when you sit too close and the noise and counting how many torches on the canoes actually lit up during that show and waving when the riverboat goes by.

*sigh*

sooo…i know you worked at Disney…was it the internship programjammy or did you just happen to live in Orlando and had an awesome jobat Disney? because i noticed the college program thingy and am curiousto know everything i can about it… if you could be of any help,that’d be lovely. <3

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It was the Disney College Program! I did two internships, and I was a representative for the program. SO I CAN ANSWER LIKE ALL YOUR QUESTIONS.

You can work at either WDW in Florida or DL in California, but trust me, you want to do WDW. So much better. And you can work anywhere on property- rides, stores, restaurants, resorts, performing, anything. It’s a paid internship; it’s minimum wage, but still. Paid!

They have apartment complexes specifically for CPs (you can have one to seven roommates) and a bus system that takes you everywhere on property as well as Walmart, the mall, etc.

You can also take classes that, for some schools, will transfer as credit. And some schools give you internship credit too.

The program is really, really fun, and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to take a semester off but do something that will look super awesome on a resume.

I worked my first CP in the spring of 2006 as a Tour Guide on the Great Movie Ride, and my second in the summer of 2009 at Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage, High School Musical 3: School’s Out! Pep Rally, Fantasmic! and the Pixar Block Party Bash parade. Disney’s Hollywood Studios is totally my jam.

And as a CP CM you get all sorts of perks and discounts. Suddenly everyone will want to be your best friend…

And also, when you work parade and have to pull up the tape afterwards, you can make really cool Mickey-shaped tape balls. So that’s a perk.

I have a question in regards to you working at Disney World, did youwork there or did you do the college internship? Either way would yourecommend working there? I’m thinking about applying for the paidinternship because it seems like it would be a lot of fun. Thanks!

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In the span of four years, I worked two college programs and was a campus representative for the Disney CP, and I LOVED it!

I was Attractions at Disney-MGM/Disney’s Hollywood Studios both times. In the spring of 2006, I was a tour guide on the Great Movie Ride, and in the summer of 2009, I worked at Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage, Fantasmic!, Pixar’s Block Party Bash, and High School Musical 3: School’s Out! Pep Rally.

I highly recommend doing in the program. It’s very intense, but so much fun. AND YOU CAN GO TO THE PARKS WHENEVER YOU’RE NOT WORKING WHICH IS TOTALLY AWESOME. My younger sister also just finished her first program; she was in Epcot Attractions as one of the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure cast members and she loved it. You can work anywhere in the parks or resorts, and it’s pretty amazing.

DO IT. DO IIIT. Or at least apply. If you get accepted and decide against or can’t do it, you can decline and they won’t hold it against you if you ever apply again.

So this is the short version of my answer!! I’d be happy to post up more stuff about the Disney College Program if you or anyone else has more questions! Because seriously…it’s amazing.

ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY GREAT MOVIE RIDE, HOME OF POTHEAD THE MUNCHKIN AND THE NUDE DANCER OF THE MONTH AWARD AND THE MARQUEE NEWSLETTER AND FOUR GHOSTS I AM NOT EVEN KIDDING YOU.