I have never written a trip report before, so I’m not sure how this is going to go. I usually just jot down some notes in a kind of diary while I’m on a Disney trip, just to record the memories. When you’ve been to Disney World every summer since 1998, it’s hard to remember the whens, wheres, whats, whos and whys. I can’t tell you the year I slipped over on the wet floor in the Main Street Bakery when someone forgot to put out a wet floor sign. I can’t tell you the last time I rode in the front on the Monorail. I can’t tell you how long it took me to get over my fear of the zombies which jump up behind the tombstones in the HauntedMansion (although it’s probably close to 10 years!). And, as much as I’d like to, I can’t tell you how long it took me to complete my first VMK in-park quest (but it was so long that I noticed on my last trip that my parents covertly steered me away from the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom sign-up area). My whole set of Disney memories are based upon unreliable recollections and fragments of over-watched home movies (and my Dad always insists on filming that tedious Backlot Tour pre-show and about 10 minutes of cars driving down the I4, which just makes me want to hit the eject button!). So a trip report may be the best way of recording and remembering what I hope will be an incredible experience! Who knows, by the end of these 10 weeks or so, I might be the next Tom Bricker of the Trip Reporting world!
At the moment I’m thinking of doing a report update once every week, but when faced with the dilemma of spending the evening writing up the week’s events or heading over to EPCOT to watch Illuminations, I can’t guarantee that the former will win. You guys understand, I’m sure! And I hope to include a few photos in each installment (although not in this one as the camera is already packed away somewhere!)
So before I start, a little bit about me. My name’s David, I’m 21 years old and I’ve just finished studying a BA in English Literature at GoldsmithsUniversity in London, but I’m doing my Masters straight after I come back from Florida. I’ve been visiting Disney World every year since I was 6 years old (although, to be totally honest, I didn’t go in 2011 because I went to Disneyland instead – which was amazing. Disneyland is definitely my favourite Disney park because it’s so magical to think that Walt actually created and walked around the place. What will make my Disney College Program all the sweeter is that after it all I’m heading to Disneyland for 12 days! Disney World and Disneyland in the same summer! So exciting!).
So I’ve always wanted to work at Disney World since I was a kid. My favourite place in the entire world is at the MagicKingdom, right by the river, sitting in one of those yellow chairs outside the ice cream parlour on a beautiful summer day (the experience is made twice as incredible if you add some strawberry ice cream!). My favourite ride is… gosh, erm… I love Expedition Everest just because it is an epic ride, regardless of whether it is occupied by a fully-functional or Disco Yeti. I’m also a massive Michael Jackson fan, and so am in the vast minority of WDWMagic contributors who loves Captain EO. It’s an amazing show with great catchy songs, incredible dancing and some humorous 80s fashion. Having never seen Michael perform live, Captain EO is almost as close as you can get to seeing the greatest entertainer perform before your eyes, and I’ll be devastated when it goes (it’s only a matter of time, I know =/).
Anyway, enough about me and some more about how I got onto the program. I heard about it a few years ago from a British girl who worked in the Rockin’ Rollercoaster shop and it sounded like an amazing opportunity. Ever since I’d started university I wanted to do it, but I’d always had a Disney trip booked already over the summer (like a lot of people on here, as soon as the trip’s over it’s only a week or so before we start planning for the next!). As I thought this was going to be my last year of university, and my last opportunity to do the program, as soon as I got back from Florida in September 2012, I insisted that my Mum did not book a trip until I tried out for the Disney College Program. She obliged and I uploaded my CV onto the Yummy Jobs website (Yummy Jobs are the agency who do the recruitment for Disney here in the UK). I’d also enticed an old school friend, Jade, to submit her CV (which I tweaked with as I’m pretty good with words), and a few weeks later we got emails inviting us to a group interview in London.
The interview took place in an Italian restaurant near Waterloo station, which was quite strange. There were around 80 or so other candidates there and we were invited into a room where they gave a presentation explaining the different roles and expectations. I also won a Mickey Mouse fridge magnet for correctly answering a trivia question (Epcot recently celebrated what milestone anniversary? 30th!). So then we were allocated groups and slots of around ½ hour for each group. Jade was put into the 10:30 group and I got the 11:00 one. I wandered around outside in the rain until that time, too anxious and shy to talk to any other the other candidates, although some did eventually come up and I had some friendly conversations. Then Jade’s group came out and we were called in. It was time to put aside all shyness and assume a confident, friendly, likable persona. ‘Persona’ is the wrong word, as I was myself, but I was a little bit more myself than I would usually let people see. I became the Disney fanatic I usually keep hidden until I get home and delve into the forums, but I was among like-minded people. The guy sitting next to me had been to Disney World every year since he was born, which is quite a feat when you live in the UK, although he did kinda steal my thunder just before I was about to contribute my ‘interest fact’ that I’d been to Disney World every year since I was six years old! We were talking to a panel of three Yummy Jobs representatives, two of whom were taking notes and the other was asking questions, and we had to force ourselves to speak. If we didn’t answer the question, then the interviewer would move on and we’d lose the opportunity. But the questions were quite predictable. The lead interviewer asked us about our work experiences – I’d just started working as a Student Ambassador at my university a few weeks before, helping out on Open Days, talking to people at careers fairs and running A-level revision sessions, so I mentioned that. There were questions about how we would cope with sharing apartments, dealing with room mate issues, and what cultural things we would bring to/want to gain from the experience (the Disney International College Program is billed as a ‘cultural exchange program’, so we have to engage in at least one cultural activity per month, which could be anything from going to Walmart to eating in an American restaurant, and then record our experience online… seeing as it is quite difficult to live in Florida for 10 weeks without engaging in anything American, this shouldn’t be too hard to do). The last question the interviewer asked was ‘If you were a Disney character, which character would you be and why?’. This was one I was totally prepared for, and I said, as cringe-worthily cheesy as it sounds, ‘I’d be Jiminy Cricket, because whenever I feel down I just give a little whistle, and always let my conscience be my guide!’ However weird that might have sounded, I think that answer guided me, as I learnt a week later, right the way to the second stage of interviews.
Jade got through too, but her face-to-face interview was on a Monday at the same place as the group interview, whereas mine was on a Friday at the Disney Headquarters in Hammersmith, which I was really excited about. Jade reassured me that the interview was fine and nothing to worry about, and she was right. On a cold, windy Friday morning I went up to Hammersmith and watched a similar presentation in a cool mini-theatre. The Disney Headquarters were full of all the little Disney details you’d expect, with a large Mickey statue in the lobby and little Mickey Mouse silhouettes carved into the large swirling staircase. We had to bring a few documents like our passports, proof of address, a university accreditation letter etc., and once they’d looked at those we went into the aforementioned theatre – there were about 100 or so other candidates there. Doing the presentation were three Disney employees – the head of Disney Recruitment, the head of Disney Immigration and the Manager of Future World East, who was responsible for all the cast members working at Soarin’, Living with the Land, Journey into the Imagination, and… Captain EO! So after a presentation which went a little more in-depth about the Disney roles, which was followed by another Disney Trivia session (I got another prize – this time a cool Disney College Program luggage tag in the shape of Mickey Mouse’s head which I can’t wait to use! The question this time was, ‘Who are the Disney Fab Five?’ And I said ‘Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Pluto!). Then we were split up into more time slots for one-to-one sessions. I was in the middle group for 1:30, which was a while away considering it was now about 10:30. So I wandered around Hammersmith, which is one of the dullest places in London, I’ve now discovered. There were some small shopping malls and I browsed some book stores and had some Chinese for lunch in an empty Food Court. Time came around pretty quickly and I went for my interview. Me and the group of 1:30ers waited around in a large room full of Disney Billboards advertising Finding Nemo 3D and Monsters Inc 3D, as well as a cool suit used in The Avengers Assemble movie (although I can’t remember whose suit it was!). We were waiting for about 20 minutes, during which time some of the other guys started dancing the Gangham Style dance, but I resisted the urge. Then they called a girl up and I went up soon after, which was nice. I wanted to be interviewed by Jim, the EPCOT guy, just so I could enthuse about Captain EO, but I ended up with the Immigration woman, Janet, but she was lovely. The whole thing was just like a casual conversation (although we sat next to a Frankenweenie poster and the weird girl kept staring at me throughout with her wide eyes, which was quite off-putting). Frankenweenie actually provided me with a great ice-breaker, as I talked about how I’d seen the movie the week before and loved it. Janet said she also liked Tim Burton and couldn’t wait to see Frankenweenie. Anyway, before the interview we were all given a sheet listing the various roles and were told to pick our preferences. For number one I put Attractions, then Merchandise and finally Character Attendant. But when this came up in the interview, Janet asked me what my forth option was. Now, I said that I was deliberating about Custodial. Whilst cleaning toilets is far from ideal, I’d always liked the idea of being free to roam the park, interact with guests and trade pins, and because it’s an unpopular role it’d be an easier one to get. So I chose that as my forth option. She asked me some more questions about my work experience, and my love of Disney – I spoke a lot about my love of Main Street and Captain EO (and Space Mountain come up somehow, which is when Janet revealed that her son works at Space Mountain – so cool!). I went away feeling happy and that’d I done the best I could do.
…and a week later, both me and Jade got emails saying that’d we had got accepted onto the program. She got offered a lifeguard role and I got Custodial. If I got it, I knew it’d be Custodial, but I was ecstatic nonetheless. Since then I’ve decided that Custodial is the best job for me – although I’m not looking forward to cleaning toilets and puke! I’m off on the 2nd June and Jade goes a week later, which was kind of annoying but we didn’t want to enquire about changing our dates because we’d already said that we were available on either date and didn’t want to mess up Yummy Jobs’s arrangements or sound ungrateful. I’m nervous about travelling on a plane by myself for the first time – admittedly not being the best traveller in the world – but it will be worth it, I’m sure.
So the next few months were a flurry of booking flights, medical insurance and going to the American Embassy and waiting around for 4 hours to get our visas (me and Jade met some cool fellow Disney College Programmers, so that was great). My family have booked to come to Florida on the 2nd August to make the most of my last week or so as a Cast Member (I can get them into the parks for free!), and then we head to Disneyland on the 10th August! So excited!
This week I’ve been packing like crazy. I’ve always left the packing to my Mum in previous years, but this time I took full responsibility (although she’s been a great help!). Although I keep second-guessing myself I think I’ve packed pretty much everything now – clothes, bedcovers, a pillow, toiletries (and a little something which I hope to reveal in my first official trip report next week!). I just need to pack my carry-on bag (which shouldn’t take too long), get some more dollars and some sweets for the plane (plane food makes me hurl and the only thing I can stomach for the whole 8 hour flight is sweets).
Anyway, I promise the other reports will not be so extensive (there’s no need to narrate what happens on SplashMountain or It’s Tough to be a Bug, after all). Thanks for reading and check out my other reports when they come about (I might post them on about 8th or 9th May, but that’s subject to change!). Well, I guess I’ll see ya real soon!
At the moment I’m thinking of doing a report update once every week, but when faced with the dilemma of spending the evening writing up the week’s events or heading over to EPCOT to watch Illuminations, I can’t guarantee that the former will win. You guys understand, I’m sure! And I hope to include a few photos in each installment (although not in this one as the camera is already packed away somewhere!)
So before I start, a little bit about me. My name’s David, I’m 21 years old and I’ve just finished studying a BA in English Literature at GoldsmithsUniversity in London, but I’m doing my Masters straight after I come back from Florida. I’ve been visiting Disney World every year since I was 6 years old (although, to be totally honest, I didn’t go in 2011 because I went to Disneyland instead – which was amazing. Disneyland is definitely my favourite Disney park because it’s so magical to think that Walt actually created and walked around the place. What will make my Disney College Program all the sweeter is that after it all I’m heading to Disneyland for 12 days! Disney World and Disneyland in the same summer! So exciting!).
So I’ve always wanted to work at Disney World since I was a kid. My favourite place in the entire world is at the MagicKingdom, right by the river, sitting in one of those yellow chairs outside the ice cream parlour on a beautiful summer day (the experience is made twice as incredible if you add some strawberry ice cream!). My favourite ride is… gosh, erm… I love Expedition Everest just because it is an epic ride, regardless of whether it is occupied by a fully-functional or Disco Yeti. I’m also a massive Michael Jackson fan, and so am in the vast minority of WDWMagic contributors who loves Captain EO. It’s an amazing show with great catchy songs, incredible dancing and some humorous 80s fashion. Having never seen Michael perform live, Captain EO is almost as close as you can get to seeing the greatest entertainer perform before your eyes, and I’ll be devastated when it goes (it’s only a matter of time, I know =/).
Anyway, enough about me and some more about how I got onto the program. I heard about it a few years ago from a British girl who worked in the Rockin’ Rollercoaster shop and it sounded like an amazing opportunity. Ever since I’d started university I wanted to do it, but I’d always had a Disney trip booked already over the summer (like a lot of people on here, as soon as the trip’s over it’s only a week or so before we start planning for the next!). As I thought this was going to be my last year of university, and my last opportunity to do the program, as soon as I got back from Florida in September 2012, I insisted that my Mum did not book a trip until I tried out for the Disney College Program. She obliged and I uploaded my CV onto the Yummy Jobs website (Yummy Jobs are the agency who do the recruitment for Disney here in the UK). I’d also enticed an old school friend, Jade, to submit her CV (which I tweaked with as I’m pretty good with words), and a few weeks later we got emails inviting us to a group interview in London.
The interview took place in an Italian restaurant near Waterloo station, which was quite strange. There were around 80 or so other candidates there and we were invited into a room where they gave a presentation explaining the different roles and expectations. I also won a Mickey Mouse fridge magnet for correctly answering a trivia question (Epcot recently celebrated what milestone anniversary? 30th!). So then we were allocated groups and slots of around ½ hour for each group. Jade was put into the 10:30 group and I got the 11:00 one. I wandered around outside in the rain until that time, too anxious and shy to talk to any other the other candidates, although some did eventually come up and I had some friendly conversations. Then Jade’s group came out and we were called in. It was time to put aside all shyness and assume a confident, friendly, likable persona. ‘Persona’ is the wrong word, as I was myself, but I was a little bit more myself than I would usually let people see. I became the Disney fanatic I usually keep hidden until I get home and delve into the forums, but I was among like-minded people. The guy sitting next to me had been to Disney World every year since he was born, which is quite a feat when you live in the UK, although he did kinda steal my thunder just before I was about to contribute my ‘interest fact’ that I’d been to Disney World every year since I was six years old! We were talking to a panel of three Yummy Jobs representatives, two of whom were taking notes and the other was asking questions, and we had to force ourselves to speak. If we didn’t answer the question, then the interviewer would move on and we’d lose the opportunity. But the questions were quite predictable. The lead interviewer asked us about our work experiences – I’d just started working as a Student Ambassador at my university a few weeks before, helping out on Open Days, talking to people at careers fairs and running A-level revision sessions, so I mentioned that. There were questions about how we would cope with sharing apartments, dealing with room mate issues, and what cultural things we would bring to/want to gain from the experience (the Disney International College Program is billed as a ‘cultural exchange program’, so we have to engage in at least one cultural activity per month, which could be anything from going to Walmart to eating in an American restaurant, and then record our experience online… seeing as it is quite difficult to live in Florida for 10 weeks without engaging in anything American, this shouldn’t be too hard to do). The last question the interviewer asked was ‘If you were a Disney character, which character would you be and why?’. This was one I was totally prepared for, and I said, as cringe-worthily cheesy as it sounds, ‘I’d be Jiminy Cricket, because whenever I feel down I just give a little whistle, and always let my conscience be my guide!’ However weird that might have sounded, I think that answer guided me, as I learnt a week later, right the way to the second stage of interviews.
Jade got through too, but her face-to-face interview was on a Monday at the same place as the group interview, whereas mine was on a Friday at the Disney Headquarters in Hammersmith, which I was really excited about. Jade reassured me that the interview was fine and nothing to worry about, and she was right. On a cold, windy Friday morning I went up to Hammersmith and watched a similar presentation in a cool mini-theatre. The Disney Headquarters were full of all the little Disney details you’d expect, with a large Mickey statue in the lobby and little Mickey Mouse silhouettes carved into the large swirling staircase. We had to bring a few documents like our passports, proof of address, a university accreditation letter etc., and once they’d looked at those we went into the aforementioned theatre – there were about 100 or so other candidates there. Doing the presentation were three Disney employees – the head of Disney Recruitment, the head of Disney Immigration and the Manager of Future World East, who was responsible for all the cast members working at Soarin’, Living with the Land, Journey into the Imagination, and… Captain EO! So after a presentation which went a little more in-depth about the Disney roles, which was followed by another Disney Trivia session (I got another prize – this time a cool Disney College Program luggage tag in the shape of Mickey Mouse’s head which I can’t wait to use! The question this time was, ‘Who are the Disney Fab Five?’ And I said ‘Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Pluto!). Then we were split up into more time slots for one-to-one sessions. I was in the middle group for 1:30, which was a while away considering it was now about 10:30. So I wandered around Hammersmith, which is one of the dullest places in London, I’ve now discovered. There were some small shopping malls and I browsed some book stores and had some Chinese for lunch in an empty Food Court. Time came around pretty quickly and I went for my interview. Me and the group of 1:30ers waited around in a large room full of Disney Billboards advertising Finding Nemo 3D and Monsters Inc 3D, as well as a cool suit used in The Avengers Assemble movie (although I can’t remember whose suit it was!). We were waiting for about 20 minutes, during which time some of the other guys started dancing the Gangham Style dance, but I resisted the urge. Then they called a girl up and I went up soon after, which was nice. I wanted to be interviewed by Jim, the EPCOT guy, just so I could enthuse about Captain EO, but I ended up with the Immigration woman, Janet, but she was lovely. The whole thing was just like a casual conversation (although we sat next to a Frankenweenie poster and the weird girl kept staring at me throughout with her wide eyes, which was quite off-putting). Frankenweenie actually provided me with a great ice-breaker, as I talked about how I’d seen the movie the week before and loved it. Janet said she also liked Tim Burton and couldn’t wait to see Frankenweenie. Anyway, before the interview we were all given a sheet listing the various roles and were told to pick our preferences. For number one I put Attractions, then Merchandise and finally Character Attendant. But when this came up in the interview, Janet asked me what my forth option was. Now, I said that I was deliberating about Custodial. Whilst cleaning toilets is far from ideal, I’d always liked the idea of being free to roam the park, interact with guests and trade pins, and because it’s an unpopular role it’d be an easier one to get. So I chose that as my forth option. She asked me some more questions about my work experience, and my love of Disney – I spoke a lot about my love of Main Street and Captain EO (and Space Mountain come up somehow, which is when Janet revealed that her son works at Space Mountain – so cool!). I went away feeling happy and that’d I done the best I could do.
…and a week later, both me and Jade got emails saying that’d we had got accepted onto the program. She got offered a lifeguard role and I got Custodial. If I got it, I knew it’d be Custodial, but I was ecstatic nonetheless. Since then I’ve decided that Custodial is the best job for me – although I’m not looking forward to cleaning toilets and puke! I’m off on the 2nd June and Jade goes a week later, which was kind of annoying but we didn’t want to enquire about changing our dates because we’d already said that we were available on either date and didn’t want to mess up Yummy Jobs’s arrangements or sound ungrateful. I’m nervous about travelling on a plane by myself for the first time – admittedly not being the best traveller in the world – but it will be worth it, I’m sure.
So the next few months were a flurry of booking flights, medical insurance and going to the American Embassy and waiting around for 4 hours to get our visas (me and Jade met some cool fellow Disney College Programmers, so that was great). My family have booked to come to Florida on the 2nd August to make the most of my last week or so as a Cast Member (I can get them into the parks for free!), and then we head to Disneyland on the 10th August! So excited!
This week I’ve been packing like crazy. I’ve always left the packing to my Mum in previous years, but this time I took full responsibility (although she’s been a great help!). Although I keep second-guessing myself I think I’ve packed pretty much everything now – clothes, bedcovers, a pillow, toiletries (and a little something which I hope to reveal in my first official trip report next week!). I just need to pack my carry-on bag (which shouldn’t take too long), get some more dollars and some sweets for the plane (plane food makes me hurl and the only thing I can stomach for the whole 8 hour flight is sweets).
Anyway, I promise the other reports will not be so extensive (there’s no need to narrate what happens on SplashMountain or It’s Tough to be a Bug, after all). Thanks for reading and check out my other reports when they come about (I might post them on about 8th or 9th May, but that’s subject to change!). Well, I guess I’ll see ya real soon!
I loved reading your introduction, and will definitely be keeping updated with your future posts. I'd vaguely considered doing the International College Program, but I've never really looked into it. I have a feeling though that your report might inspire me to look into it properly before my time at university is over!
