Seven Months Working in the Place of My Dreams! A DCP PTR (SA 2013) UPDATE 10/18

[MsFrazzledFro]

And now for something a bit different from your average trip report... because I'm not just GOING to Disney World, I'm going to be WORKING there! For seven months! And all of you are gonna come on the ride with me, on my first-ever PTR (and TR when I get to it). Let's do it!

ABOUT ME

(Sadly, I could not find any good photos of me at WDW! Oh well )
Name: Kira
Age: 20 (turning 21 during the program)
School: University of Central Missouri
Major: Photography
Minors: Theatre, Business Administration

Favorite Park: Epcot
Favorite Ride: Haunted Mansion and Tower of Terror
Favorite Princess: Belle
Favorite Disney Movie: Monsters, Inc. and Nightmare Before Christmas
Favorite Thing To Do At Disney: Shop!

I have hair that never likes to behave. Food is one of my great loves and I eat more than I look like I eat. I have a sister, a mom, a dad and three best friends who are like family to me. I have a minor obsession with cats. Listening to the audio for Spectromagic makes me sob. I love music, video games, fashion and film.

My history with WDW is an interesting one. Unlike a lot of people, I didn't grow up with vacations to the parks - in fact, the first time I went I was fourteen years old! Even stranger than that, I HATED the idea of going at first - I thought it was a kids' amusement park and that was it. Boy, was I wrong! Not only did I absolutely love my time there, but it lit a great fire in my heart that led me here to DISboards... and eventually the DCP!

Disney has led me down such a great path and opened so many doors for me... it's been a bigger positive influence than I can even say!

NEXT POST: Chapter One - The Application Process/Getting Accepted!​

 

[MsFrazzledFro]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter One - The Application Process/Getting Accepted!
Chapter Two - Roommates, Housing and my Disney Bucket List
Chapter Three - Me at School
Chapter Four - My Friends React to Me on the DCP


VIDEO LOGS

Episode One (in which I babble)
Episode Two (in which I talk about my favorite things)​

 

[MsFrazzledFro]

Interviewed: September 15th, 2012
Accepted: September 20th, 2012
Role Offered: Photopass Photographer
Program/Dates: Spring Advantage/Jan 7th - Aug 2nd 2013
Complex: Hopefully Chatham!

Time for a huge long text block! Sorry in advance, I got carried away.

I applied to the DCP for the first time in the fall of 2010, but because I was just starting in college and had no money - not to mention I had no plan for my class schedule whatsoever - I couldn't go. That time, I was offered a position in QSFB (quick-service food and beverage).

Fast-forward two years - I was now a junior and had more free time (and necessary cash) on my hands so I was actually able to do the program if accepted! I joined a couple of Facebook groups for the DCP and the friends I made there helped TREMENDOUSLY with the horrible wait that comes with applying. The five days between the interview and my acceptance email were terrible - I couldn't concentrate on anything!

When I got accepted, I couldn't even process what was going on for at least a day. The first thing I did was run into my suitemate's room and jump around in a circle - no joke, I did this! - for at least five minutes. Then came the rush to pay fees, pick an arrival date and let various social media sources (my Tumblr, Facebook) know about my acceptance. The amount of love I've received over the past week has been insane - it warms my heart to know how much everyone was happy about my dreams coming true.

THE APPLICATION PROCESS

Since some of you might not know how the application works, it basically goes like this:

1. You send in the basic application that contains your name, biographical information, education, etc.
2. You complete a web-based interview (WBI) that assesses whether or not you fit the criteria for the job personality-wise. You either fail or get sent on to schedule a phone interview.
3. On the day and time you schedule, a DCP recruiter calls and conducts a phone interview with you. Usually he/she asks situational questions - "What would you do if a child was scared of a character", "How would you inform guests about a broken ride", etc.
4. You usually hear back within two weeks, and either get rejected, pended for further review or accepted.

The waiting is by far the worst part - for me, I was so terrified about not getting in that I drove myself crazy and refreshed my email constantly. I was a nervous wreck! Luckily, I didn't have to wait too long

NEXT POST: Chapter Two - Roommates, Housing and my Disney Bucket List​

 

[Grace and Mickey]

Hi
Cong adats on being accpected the DISNEY COLLEGE PROGRAM

I will be lokking forward to reading more of you planns, one of my friends at work if woking on her DCP, her interview was phone interview was Thursday
I love photopass

take care

 

[Windsor Princesses]

How exciting!! I love reading DCP trip reports because working at Disney World is my absolute biggest dream! If you don't mine me asking, when you did the interview what are some of the answers that you gave to the questions. I have heard and read a lot of different answers to different questions while I work up the courage to apply myself.
I can't wait to hear more about your experience, I'll sure be here following you along for the ride!

 

[MsFrazzledFro]

(Eek, just realized I posted this in the TR rather than the PTR forum. D'oh! I've asked for it to be moved over though )

Hi
Cong adats on being accpected the DISNEY COLLEGE PROGRAM

I will be lokking forward to reading more of you planns, one of my friends at work if woking on her DCP, her interview was phone interview was Thursday
I love photopass

take care

Awww, thank you! And I hope she'll have as much fun as I know I'll have!

How exciting!! I love reading DCP trip reports because working at Disney World is my absolute biggest dream! If you don't mine me asking, when you did the interview what are some of the answers that you gave to the questions. I have heard and read a lot of different answers to different questions while I work up the courage to apply myself.
I can't wait to hear more about your experience, I'll sure be here following you along for the ride!

Hmmm... the only ones I really remember were the job-situational ones. I was asked a question about how I would handle guests queuing for a ride that had to go down for repairs, and I said something about keeping them entertained while they wait or providing them with an estimated time of when the ride would be back up again. I totally forgot about the Fastpasses CMs pass out at broken rides! *smacks forehead*

The other one was for hostessing in a restaurant, and it was about how I would handle children getting upset or cranky while waiting for a table with their parents. I said that I would provide the kids with a snack or something to do because I remembered how much that helped me and my sister when we were small.

Since I wasn't placed in either Attractions or FSFB I don't know how good those answers were, but that was what I said! My interviewer seemed to like them at least a little bit

 

[luckylady]

Congrats on getting into the program, your going to have fun down there. I know others on a different board who have done it and made life long friends.

 

[nonnasally]

(Eek, just realized I posted this in the TR rather than the PTR forum. D'oh! I've asked for it to be moved over though )



Awww, thank you! And I hope she'll have as much fun as I know I'll have!



Hmmm... the only ones I really remember were the job-situational ones. I was asked a question about how I would handle guests queuing for a ride that had to go down for repairs, and I said something about keeping them entertained while they wait or providing them with an estimated time of when the ride would be back up again. I totally forgot about the Fastpasses CMs pass out at broken rides! *smacks forehead*

The other one was for hostessing in a restaurant, and it was about how I would handle children getting upset or cranky while waiting for a table with their parents. I said that I would provide the kids with a snack or something to do because I remembered how much that helped me and my sister when we were small.

Since I wasn't placed in either Attractions or FSFB I don't know how good those answers were, but that was what I said! My interviewer seemed to like them at least a little bit

My congrats to you as well! How very exciting for you and what a wonderful opportunity. Here's a secret from a 61 year old teacher with oodles of disney miles behind her...... its my secret desire to work at DW also. A thirty year secret I hope to make true some day soon! Blessings on your wonderful journey

 

[MsFrazzledFro]

My congrats to you as well! How very exciting for you and what a wonderful opportunity. Here's a secret from a 61 year old teacher with oodles of disney miles behind her...... its my secret desire to work at DW also. A thirty year secret I hope to make true some day soon! Blessings on your wonderful journey

Sounds a lot like my mother... she's a teacher who would probably love to work at WDW too! I hope you do get to work there someday, and thank you!

 

[Windsor Princesses]

Hmmm... the only ones I really remember were the job-situational ones. I was asked a question about how I would handle guests queuing for a ride that had to go down for repairs, and I said something about keeping them entertained while they wait or providing them with an estimated time of when the ride would be back up again. I totally forgot about the Fastpasses CMs pass out at broken rides! *smacks forehead*

The other one was for hostessing in a restaurant, and it was about how I would handle children getting upset or cranky while waiting for a table with their parents. I said that I would provide the kids with a snack or something to do because I remembered how much that helped me and my sister when we were small.

Since I wasn't placed in either Attractions or FSFB I don't know how good those answers were, but that was what I said! My interviewer seemed to like them at least a little bit

Thanks! I keep trying to figure out as many quwstions as possible that they could potentially ask. If I ever get an interview I would hate to miss out because I couldn't think of what to say!

 

[MsFrazzledFro]

So, even though I haven't known for sure I was going on the program for very long... I already have roommates! Five of them! Gisselle, Katie, Rachel, Ashley and Kelci are their names, and hopefully they'll be showing up in my reports at some point

We've been getting along great so far. We're (mostly) pretty goofy, like to fangirl over things and are all excited to be working at Disney - so that's a good start! I feel great about finding them so early on just for this reason - we get three months to get to know each other rather than just a few weeks or not at all. Here at school I've only ever had random roommates, so it's a nice change to be able to PICK them for once.

Out of the three different apartments we want to stay in Chatham the most. It's nice, relatively new and is close to the bus stops and stuff. Bad news? It's also the most popular complex so we'll have to really book it to Vista Way on the morning of check-in!

Pretty, isn't it?

Anyway, other than that I've been starting my great-and-mighty DISNEY BUCKET LIST. Since I've only been to Disney twice there's a ton of stuff I haven't had the chance to do yet... so I'm gonna try and do it all while I'm working there! Among the items on my list we have:

1. Eat at every restaurant in Epcot
2. Ride Space Mountain (it was down for refurb last time I went)
3. Eat Dole Whip AND a Dole Float
4. Meet Alice and the Mad Hatter, if possible
5. See Fantasmic (yes... I've never seen it. It's sad, I know )
6. See one of the little performances they put on before opening the parks for the day
7. See every parade offered!
8. Visit every resort
   
   Other than that, it'll all gonna be redoing stuff I enjoyed before that I want to do again. At the top of my list - wandering around Epcot, no questions there!
   
   
   
   PS - I've started up a DCP vlog as well, as I finish planning my trip down there and impatiently wait for January. If you wanna watch the first episode here it is:
   
   MsFrazzledFro's DCP Vlog - Episode One
   
   I pretty much just babble about stuff I've already mentioned here... but I'll be talking about more interesting stuff soon. Until then... see ya in the next chapter!
   
   NEXT POST: Chapter Three - Me At School (AKA How on Earth Will I Work and Learn at the Same Time?)

 

[Grace and Mickey]

Good afternoon

How where you able to find out about your roomates so soon?

My friend at who had her phone interview last Thursday, said they ask her
'what would you do if a child at Bibibe bob boquite was upset"

She is also having a adution for a face character in Columbus ohio, later this month
Sorry my spelling is bad
hope you dont mind me sharing your story with her.
Grace

 

[MsFrazzledFro]

Good afternoon

How where you able to find out about your roomates so soon?

My friend at who had her phone interview last Thursday, said they ask her
'what would you do if a child at Bibibe bob boquite was upset"

She is also having a adution for a face character in Columbus ohio, later this month
Sorry my spelling is bad
hope you dont mind me sharing your story with her.
Grace

Not a problem at all! Go right ahead

I actually found my roommates through a couple of Facebook groups I'm a part of - two of the girls and I joked about raiding Taco Bell as soon as we got to Florida and it just sort of moved up from there. Disney doesn't assign you roommates until you actually arrive, but if you find people ahead of time you can request to live together while checking in!​

 

[Grace and Mickey]

hi

Just wanted to let you know my friend ( sarah) at work got accept in to DCP on fridayshe been assigned to merchandise.
Hope you are fine have a nice week
Grace

 

[MsFrazzledFro]

hi

Just wanted to let you know my friend ( sarah) at work got accept in to DCP on fridayshe been assigned to merchandise.
Hope you are fine have a nice week
Grace

Awwww! Tell her congratulations from me

 

[heaven2dc]

Congrats on getting accepted! (I'm pending waiting on hopefully an acceptance for Disneyland CP for a hospitality role. I'm also probably the oldest student as I went back to college after my kids were grown. But my recruiter said they've had even older students than me!)

I think it's so neat that you're sharing your story about visiting WDW along with your CP program plus that you have 5 roommates already! I enjoyed seeing your Vlog (great job even with a sore throat!) - hope you continue to Vlog your journey

 

[__disneygirl]

Congratulations!!! I can't wait to read all about your experience. The CP sounds like honestly a no brainer if you love Disney as far as life decisions go. Photopass photographer is a great role too because you literally capture the magic all day...no pun intended. hahaha. Or maybe pun intended? I don't know. Was that your first choice of a role?

 

[ChattaAlley]

I am so excited for you. This seems like a chance of a lifetime. And something you will talk about forever. I can not wait to hear ALL about it.

You need to get with Jess (Disneyfreak508 - I think). She is doing a DCP for that same time frame. How cool is that.

 

[HFC1969]

Great report!

Cant wait to follow...

From some folks in MO...

 

[MsFrazzledFro]

Congrats on getting accepted! (I'm pending waiting on hopefully an acceptance for Disneyland CP for a hospitality role. I'm also probably the oldest student as I went back to college after my kids were grown. But my recruiter said they've had even older students than me!)

I think it's so neat that you're sharing your story about visiting WDW along with your CP program plus that you have 5 roommates already! I enjoyed seeing your Vlog (great job even with a sore throat!) - hope you continue to Vlog your journey

Well, good luck to you! I've met a few people who are going on the DL program through Facebook, and it seems super exciting And thanks, I enjoy making my Vlog!​

Congratulations!!! I can't wait to read all about your experience. The CP sounds like honestly a no brainer if you love Disney as far as life decisions go. Photopass photographer is a great role too because you literally capture the magic all day...no pun intended. hahaha. Or maybe pun intended? I don't know. Was that your first choice of a role?

It was! I thought I would have a pretty good shot at getting it because of my major, plus I felt it was a role I could do really well in. And, as I found out afterwards, it's also apparently one of the highest-paid roles - which is good for me because I have a LOT of gifts to buy while in the program!​

I am so excited for you. This seems like a chance of a lifetime. And something you will talk about forever. I can not wait to hear ALL about it.

You need to get with Jess (Disneyfreak508 - I think). She is doing a DCP for that same time frame. How cool is that.

She IS? I love love love her TRs - that would be so awesome! They definitely were the ones that inspired me to make this PTR/TR as well ​

Great report!

Cant wait to follow...

From some folks in MO...

Hi, from a Nebraskan who's an honorary Missourian while attending college here! Hee hee ​