Let me bring you to my Sophomore Year of college in Spring 2022. I was applying for internships like there was no tomorrow. I was applying for anything in the marketing, news, and communication umbrella I could find. All of a sudden, I received an email from Disney about their Disney College Program! I applied the year prior but figured they wouldn’t accept me because I was only a Freshman at the time of finishing my first semester. I don’t know what possessed me, as I was actively interviewing with news stations at the time, but I wanted to apply for it. I’d heard about it over the years through YouTube videos, as well as my aunt who has done the program herself; not to mention, I liked Disney! After I decided to apply, I got the web-based interview on the same day. Then, a month later, I got my acceptance to the Fall 2022 Disney College Program. I then picked my dates, joined Facebook groups to find a roommate (you can only pair with one out of three), and the rest was history.
My role in the program was Food and Bev. in Animal Kingdom Africa. I lucked out with this for sure, because the park I was centered in was one of which closed the earliest. This meant that I had the opportunity to eat dinner at resorts, go to the beach at the Polynesian, or go to a park after work. It was also just nice to be in a park versus a resort. Since College Program people (CPs) are basically who close out every single park every night, me and my friends typically were there 6 days a week 10-7. Other days though we were lucky and out earlier, especially more towards the end of our program. Unfortunately for us, we were the only people/location I knew that worked 6 days a week.
Me and some friends/coworkers in costume
People tell you pros and cons about the job and to be honest, those lists vary by person and location. Food and Beverage and Quick Service are arguably the most intense roles, but Magic Kingdom has the most intense hours. My pros were the people I met, and the occasional opportunity I had to connect with guests and feel helpful when guiding them somewhere or making suggestions. For the record, no matter what role you’re in, you are going to double as a tour guide LOL. The one thing I do want to make super clear is that this is a job first and foremost. You will have days where you’re exhausted, overworked, and underpaid. There are days that you will get treated unfairly, be disrespected by leaders and guests, and there will be times when even your coworkers and friends are mean to you. It’s not just “play in the park” and not everybody is as lucky as I was to make such strong bonds with coworkers. Park days can be fun, but you have to work really hard on work-life balance or you will drown, trust me.
Besties in Epcot
Another thing I’d like to mention is how you will 99.9% of the time walk away with less money than you walked in with. You need to save up or you will be living paycheck to paycheck and it’s brutal. Don’t fall for the trickery of discounts and deals and don’t turn into me and justify spending $50 on your dinner because “that’s the price it is WITH my discount!” I’m going to stop you right there, this is your sign to budget and save if you plan on ever doing the DCP. Disney pays you weekly, but they also take rent out weekly, and taxes are extremely high. Staying at Disney resorts with friends while I was there and going to the movies a lot were probably my biggest hits because movie tickets at Disney Springs are almost $20.
The last thing I want to touch on is the complex itself and roommates. For roommates, you’ll always get 3 others. I was lucky enough to get my own bedroom in a 4×2, meaning 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. Most people don’t get 4×4 or 4x2s, most get 2x2s. While they’re not horrible, it can be a nightmare if you don’t get along with your roommates. My roommates and I weren’t necessarily so much as friends as we were acquaintances (shoutout to my roommate, Molly though), but my situation could’ve 100% been worse. I understand why Disney takes so much rent out (kind of), the complex you live in, Flamingo Crossings, is really nice. There’s a pool, lots of hammocks and places to sit and hangout, a bunch of lecture halls (for classes), study rooms, and a gym! The thing about that is depending on your hours, you may not even use half of the amenities anyway. It felt like money going down the drain sometimes.
Seeing everyone leave (especially one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, Justin) was brutal. There were lots of packing days and tears the last two weeks of my program before I finally left on January 4th. I spent my last day eating beignets with my friends Rachel and Mckenna and riding Cosmic Rewind in Epcot before hitting the road. I only got two days to be home before I had to head back to school again. When I got back, I felt like it was hard to open up to everyone and explain my full experience. I’m usually an open-book about my life, but something about this experience felt very sacred and hard to explain. I felt myself get more and more cynical every time I explained to someone about my time there. I think that was due to how overwhelming it was to sum up 4.5 months of my life to everyone back home. I also don’t love how much of a broken record I feel like every time I’ve told the same stories over and over. A big part of why I loved Disney so much was the people I met there and it’s hard to put those people in a box and define them in only a few words when they meant so much more.
Me in Magic Kingdom!
Now I didn’t write this to steer people either away from or towards the program, I just wanted to share my authentic experience and the aftermath of it all. There wasn’t much magic-making and world-altering guest interactions in my role, but I walked away with some of the most meaningful connections I’ve made in my life. I met coordinators and leaders that did incredible things like work for talent agencies and theater departments, and I met a family there. If any of the Harambe besties are reading this, you guys already know you made life so much fun while I was down there. I also made a huge connection with myself. I work incredibly hard in everything I do in life, and that showed at my time at Disney. Despite how grueling the hours were at times and how badly my feet hurt (still kind of do), I proved to myself how much I care about doing a good job and doing things right, even when it absolutely sucked. I learned a lot about the way Disney runs their business and why and how they market things the way that they do. It was also cool to see ways that such a huge company was finding ways to go green and implement diversity within their company. They could definitely always do better, but it was exciting to be a part of all of that for a bit. Overall, it was an experience, and not one I’d take back, not in this lifetime.
For more information, check out: https://jobs.disneycareers.com/disney-programs#college