DCP Tips: Living

There are three components to the Disney College Program: living, learning and earning. The living component has to do with on-site housing and how you spend your time outside out the parks. This will be your life for the next 4 or more months. How you live and who you live with can really affect the overall experience of your program. Here are some tips to tackle DCP housing:

Start with social media

You do have the option of choosing who you live with. Many newly accepted Cast Members will flood to Facebook groups to connect with others before actually beginning the program. This way, you're not going in completely alone. There will be some questionnaire forms floating around. Fill one out about yourself. Read other's posts and comment if you have anything in common. This is the easiest way to choose your own roommates. Even if you do not become roommates with everyone you talk to over social media, you can still make friends. 

Consider cost

The housing complex and the number of roommates you have will effect the cost of rent. Typically, the more roommates you have and the less bathrooms you have mean a less expensive rent. A 6 person suite with only 2 rooms and 2 bathrooms will be less expensive than a 6 person suite with 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. If saving money is a concern for you, then you will want to take that in account when deciding how many roommates you want and where you wish to live. 

Inspection

The worst time of the month is inspection time. Housing staff will perform inspections on all of the rooms once per month. They will look not only for cleanliness, but also for prohibited items. You can always tell when it's inspection week based on the number of empty vodka bottles and cardboard beer boxes in the dumpsters. 

The housing staff will post the week they are doing inspections, but they will not tell you which day they are specifically checking your apartment. This means you might have to keep your place spotless for an entire week. However, if you have one of the cleanest apartments, you will be rewarded with a small prize, like a box of cookies. My roommates and I were very competitive when it came to inspections and we always strived to win something. This usually depended on the staff who checked our room. The lax ones would peek in for 10 seconds and mark us good on everything. The strict ones would scold us for a scrap of paper on the floor we forgot to pick up. 

During inspection time, it helps if everyone picks up after themselves before and after work because you never know when the inspectors will drop by. Also, don't hide things in suitcases because that's the first place they look. 

Attend events

DCP housing holds events every so often. They usually take place in the Chatham lawn or the Commons recreation room. Sometimes there are parties where they will play music and give away free burgers and sodas. Sometimes there are bingo nights or talent shows. Sometimes rare character meet and greets will take place. I highly recommend attending as many events as you can. For one, you may get some free food out of it. But also, you can meet some new people.

Transportation

If you can, bring a car!!!

DCP transportation sucks. It is not uncommon to hear stories of buses randomly bursting into flames. One DCP bus ran into my friend's PARKED car. Some bus loops take 2 hours. I'll never forget sitting alone in an empty parking lot after closing the park, waiting for hours under a streetlight and sitting on the cold, jagged concrete for a bus to pick me up. And then waiting another 45 minutes for the bus to take me home. 

I think I got the majority of my sleep during the program on the bus. 

This bus loop may have changed since my DCP days, but after picking me up at my stop, the bus would drive to a Walmart, and then a mall, and then the grocery store, and then the other housing complexes before finally stopping at mine again. If I wanted to go grocery shopping, it was an hour ride there and a half hour ride back. One day, my roommate with a car offered to take me grocery shopping. I was SHOCKED when it only took her five minutes to drive to the same grocery store. Since then, I started walking more places. Who knew feet would be faster than wheels?

There's also the issue if you miss your morning bus to take you to work. The next one will not come for another half hour. Maybe. Might be another 20 minutes, might be another 45 minutes. And then it'll be another hour before it drops you off. It's not uncommon advice for CPs to arrive 2 hours early to their shift "just in case".  Which is fine and all until your shift starts at 6am. In all practically, a 19 year old is not dragging their butt out of bed at 4am. That's when most are GOING to bed. Once, I had to call a taxi to take me to work after missing the bus. 

Seriously, bring your own car. Or make very good friends with others who do have cars. 

Don't be afraid to change it up

If you and your roommates are just not getting along, you can request to transfer rooms. The best time to do this is when a program is ending or about to begin.  For example, one of our roommates left after the summer program ended, giving us a vacancy. A friend of ours hated her own roommates, so she was able to move in with us as the Fall program started. We were all much happier. 

You can also rearrange beds and rooms within your apartment without prior approval from housing. If you aren't getting along with the person you share a bedroom with, you can ask about switching to the other bedroom in the same apartment. 

Explore Orlando

You are not just moving to Disney, but maybe moving to a new state and new city. Orlando is a tourist's paradise. Go to shopping malls, beaches, Taylor Swift concerts, cowboy clubs where everyone line dances and
24-hour coffee shops where hipster bands play loudly and terribly. Make sure you know how to take care of yourself. Know where the drug stores and fast food joints are. For many people, the Disney College Program is the first time they are far away from home without their family. Orlando can be your playground, but you also need to learn how to navigate a new place and take advantage of all it offers. 

For more tips

Check out DCP Tips: Earning!

Do you have any questions about the Disney College Program? Comment them below!