Former WDW CP's working at DLP

[JaynMACP96_97_9]

Hi all,

I'm new to this site, so pardon me if this is a redundant topic.

I'm a 3-time College Programmer at WDW. I'm curious to know how many cast members or former CPers travel over to the Paris 'burbs to work for awhile.

Do any of you hang out on this site?
Do any of you that work there have friends/enemies(hehe) that are Americans that worked previously at WDW?

I'm about to enter Advanced French I/II and am thinking about using DLP as a springboard to moving to the Paris area permanently within the next 5 years.

How do Germans, Dutch, Belgian, English etc..cast members get settled in the area? Does Disney have a program to help you find an apartment and get adjusted or is it all on you and they simply hire you as if you were from Versailles or any other 'burb?

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

Also, if i can be of any help to those of you in Europe that are considering doing the year long ambassador programs down in Florida, by all means, let me know.

Jay

 

[Maria]

Hi Jay, welcome to the forums!

I am from Mexico and did the Fellowship Ambassador Program in 98-99 and some friends of mine from Canada, UK, Italy, Norway and the US then applied to work in DLP. They all spoke French, but I think the American friend was the one who spoke less and he learned a lot more there.
I visited them in 2001 and Vista Way was a real luxury compared to the place where cast members lived there... I do hope they have changed that.

Good luck in your plans... France is a beautiful place and you´ll have the chance of travelling all Europe like my friends did.

 

[JaynMACP96_97_9]

Hi Maria

Wow, Vistaway a luxury? hehe.... I know what you mean though. My parents' friends have an apartment near the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris and despite its amazing location, things such as utilities leave much to be desired vis-a-vis apartments in the US.

But that's to be expected throughout Europe. I will gladly trade those comforts for the rest of Europe though.

Its good to know that they do provide some sort of housing for short term cast members. But do you think this scenario would be available to me as well? Since i haven't been in school since '98. Or is it simply a program for foreigners in general?

So how long did you stay with them? What were their roles?

Do you still keep in touch with any of them? Would they be willing to email me if i had any questions?

Thanks for your help, Maria!

 

[Quark]

I'm afraid that housing conditions didn't improve. In fact, building 1 of "La Boiserie" burnt down while I was there last August and a lot of CMs didn't really believe it was entirely the CMs fault. There even was a demo in front of the train station because of bad housing conditions.
I was lucky, they put me off-site into a student hostel. That way I didn't have many colleagues around me, but I didn't have to stay in one of those holes they call residences. Okay, the shower curtain was mouldy as well, but apart from that it was basic, but adequate. On my last night I was expected to move into one of those Disney-owned apartments and when I saw it, I decided to leave a day early instead.
I don't want to put you off, everything else was great, but Disney didn't really seem to care much for their CMs in that respect. Everything that was not Guest-related (like Costuming and Housing in particular) seemed very chaotic. If you have worked at Walt Disney World, you probaby have to expect an entirely different situation in Paris.
As far as I know there's a maximum length of stay in those Disney apartments (anywhere between 3 and 12 months, I don't remember), but believe me, you wouldn't want to stay there any longer. It is available (and offered) to all foreigners. Inside that so-called housing apartment they had additional offerings and I believe they also offer new apartments for rent over at Val d'Europe to permanent CMs - they'll probably help to find an appartment for you, but I wouldn't expect too much from them. From my experience they're quite incompetent.
As for speaking French, I had a few problems because my French wasn't that good and I was there only for a month. I was slightly disappointed that I didn't have much contact to others because the casual language still is French and I was sitting there and only listening most of the time.
I also have to say that French housing standards aren't always as bad, and there actually nice apartments all over Europe - just for the record

I'm actually choosing an approach in the opposite direction, I'm starting with the WDW International Program at the end of September. So I'll hopefully soon have an overview about the similarities and differences of WDW compared to DLP. If you have any questions, please feel free to email, I always love talking about working at DLP, even though it was only a short-term expierence for me.

 

[experiment628]

Hi Quark,

1.) it was a building at "Les Pleiades" that burned down, not "La Boiserie".

2.) You consider yourself lucky to have been put into an off-site hostel?????????????? Alright, "Les Pleiades" sucks (big time), but La Louisiane and La Boiserie are alright. Sure, there not great, but my place at Boiserie wasn't really that bad.
The kitchen could be better equipped and some bath-rooms needed some attention... (But I agree that they ask a ridiculous sum of money for those places - especially when four or sometimes even six people have to share them...).

I heard from a lot of people that WDW's housing is supposed to be a lot better - but DLP's is not as dreadful as you've described it...

 

[JaynMACP96_97_9]

Hey experiment628,

Vistaway, which is the apartment complex that the vast majority of College/International Program Alumni can relate to is also setup in 4/6 person apartments. We paid about $70/week for that housing and it was debited right out of our checks each week. If you chose a 4 person apartment it was a few dollars more a week. Florida, and especially central florida is primarily apartment dwellers. If you were to look at the state that Disney keeps Vistaway in vis-a-vis regular complexes around Orlando, i'd give it 2.5 stars out of 4. But its very similar to living in dorms in American colleges, whereby aesthetics isn't everything when you're usually coming/going from a party when you aren't working.

So are these 4 you mentioned entirely different apartment complexes from eachother? Are they owned by Disney, or does Disney simply have a rapport with these complexes to house their internationals?

Where are you from? When/how long were you there?

If you'd prefer, you can email me directly through my email address in my user profile.

 

[Maria]

Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the apartments in DLP, but I think some pictures would help compare the housing complexes. I guess they impressed me and my friends more, because we first lived at The Commons and our building was brand new, we were the first ones to live in it, and from that, they went to DLP.... so you can imagine what their impression was when they got there. The balconies at DLP looked so old and CM´s were forbidden to stand in them, while at The Commons, the balconies were a big plus in the apartments!

:animwink:

 

[Quark]

experiment628, you're right, the sucky apartment complex was Les Pleiades, not La Boiserie.
But yes, I consider myself lucky not having had to stay at Les Pleiades. And friends visiting also would have been glad to...
I haven't seen La Boiserie or La Louisiane from the inside (in fact I never met someone who stayed in the latter), but the people in La Boiserie didn't really complain.
Trouble is, they put almost all of the people who came to work for only a month inside Les Pleiades or in my "Facotel". And of the two I certainly had the better solution. Only people who had already worked at DLP in they year before were put in La Boiserie - strange coincidence, don't you think?
Also, there WAS that demonstration, so it's not all made up. And lastly, it wasn't me who complained that badly about the apartment, but the others. Okay, Germans can be especially picky (you know, you are one yourself , but they didn't only have a mouldy shower curtain, but mouldy walls as well, with water dripping from the ceiling. Uhah...
And for their incompetence: There were supposed to be some busses running to transfer people from the Facotel to the Disney residences - I'm glad I had a car with me, I still saw others sitting on their baggages when I left. Obviously there had been only one bus in the morning. And when I arrived at housing, nobody was there, but the doors were unlocked. I waited for nearly an hour (!), with others coming and giving up, and I could have plundered the whole Marina. Finally I went to the Sequioa Lodge, where a very kind reception manager took me backstage and tried reaching someone responsible. Obviously one of the housing people was driving that bus and the others had gone for lunch - without locking the doors of course. No - I DON'T like housing at DLP.

JaynMACP96_97_9: There are three apartment complexes, La Boiserie, La Louisiane and (sucky) Les Pleiades. They're entirely seperate and located in the vicinity of the greater Disneyland Paris resort area, Les Pleiades being near the Golf resort. I imagine it's just the same as with The Commons, Vistaway and Chatham Square at WDW - as far as I could see there were not really inside the resort area, but nearby.

 

[Quark]

Not having stayed at a Disney complex for more than an hour I don't have pictures of there, but I do have some of my "Facotel". I can link three of them. The first one is outside of the rooms, and everything was quite, the second one is the kitchen I never used because my Italian roommate had it entirely occupied with his own stuff and the third is a view of how the bathroom looked after a week. I don't seem to be able to find a picture of the main room, but all in all it wasn't as bad as you might think judging by the last picture
We had someone coming in and cleaning every week, I don't believe they have that over at the real Disney apartments, and if not, that was a major plus of "Facotel". Also, it was sort of a double room with kitchen, whereas there are more people staying together in a Disney-owned apartment.

 

[Maria]

I don´t really know which apartment complex I saw... but it looked like an abandoned place. The "gardens" were all bushes not trimmed and the paint was peeling in the apartments. There was no way you could throw a party in the area between the buildings like we did at The Commons. :animwink:
The apartment I stayed at (one night and noone seemed to care -not like at The Commons were nobody could stay due to Security all over the place) had a hall (no living, no dining) and two rooms, the bathroom (sink and bathtub in one place and the toilet in another one with no sink -eeww, why???) and the little kitchen with a little table and a minibar as a fridge! I felt so thankful for what I had at The Commons, I don´t know how my friends made it for months there...

 

[Quark]

Sounds like Les Pleiades In any case, I would have had a problem staying at Les Pleiades OR Facotel for a longer period than, say, 2 Months...

 

[experiment628]

Sounds more like La Louisiane to me... they've got very different layouts over there...
The two-bed appartements over there are actually quiet nice and spacious!!!

I stayed in La Boiserie for about ten months and even if it wasn't the best place ever (especially for the rent Disney's asking...) I really enjoyed my time there. (There were always good parties all over the place ). The appartements should be in a better state, that's true... But I liked the place. I even had a view of the fireworks during the Christmas from the first appartement I was living in . And the size of the place was alright. Never felt cramped in my appartement (except the one time my roomate celebrated his birthday and about 80 to 100 people showed up for that party... that was something... ).

Transportation from and to the residences can be quiet a pain, because it's public transportation instead of Disney - and the bus timetable is just horrible. Way too few busses on the weekends. And I had the "pleasure" of having to get a bus one hour before my work started and to hang out 45 minutes in the break room doing nothing... But I survived... And still managed to have a great time!

Quark, by the way, I talked to a lot of people who also had the "pleasure" of staying at the Facotel. They traded in gladely their places for a Disney residence... Just for the fact that they were then able to go out onto the street after sunset... (that's what I was told.)


experiment628

 

[Quark]

Yes, that's true, I was almost robbed twice on my way from the RER station to the Facotel. Mind you, I was only staying there for a month and that happened towards the end of my stay...
Being able to take the RER was an advantage by the way, I had to walk two minutes to the station and was dropped off right inside the park, it was almost always on time and I could actually experience some real commuters on their way to work and also have a look at the countryside. I always liked taking the RER.

I have also talked to some of my neighbors at the Facotel, also to those that went to normal Disney residences afterwards. Some of them really liked them and others said that they'd rather have stayed at the Facotel. It depended on which appartment they got, and some of those at the Disney residences really were FAR worse than Facotel. But it's a matter of preference, and also the Facotel had more of a hotel feeling to it. So if you stay for a longer period of time, you'd probably hate staying inside late at night, but for a month it was better than having to deal with a real "household".

At first I hated the Facotel just as much as others hated their apartments, but I came to appreciate it. I think that's what happened to the others as well...

 

[experiment628]

At first I hated the Facotel just as much as others hated their apartments, but I came to appreciate it. I think that's what happened to the others as well...

This seems to happen to a lot of residents to the Disney appartements... as long as they don't live at Les Pleiades, that is