DISNEY COLLEGE PROGRAM: IS IT WORTH IT?
BINGHAMTONREVIEW.COM
Disney College Program: Is It Worth It? By Tommy Gagliano
H
ello there, college student. Are you tired of taking boring, meaningless classes at a state university that you didn’t want to attend in the first place? Want to escape the shitty weather, seasonal depression, and crackheads for a semester? What if I told you that you can earn college credits—and get paid—to do an internship at Walt Disney World? What if I also told you that you get free admission to all Disney parks during your internship? Sounds like quite the experience, doesn’t it? If you’re still not sold, check out how Disney themselves describe their college program: “Discover a unique living and working environment with participants from all over the world. [Disney College Program] allows you to gain on-the-job experience with a world-renowned company, providing uniquely Disney learning experiences, all while preparing for your future, building transferable skills, including networking, problem solving, teamwork and effective communication.” Wow! There are so many buzzwords in there that I almost missed that the second sentence is not grammatically correct. Surely you must be convinced now, though. Who wouldn’t want “transferable skills” or “uniquely Disney learning experiences”? I know I was sold. At the time of publication, I’ve been in Florida for approximately two and a half months as a Disney College Program participant. Everyone always asks “are you having fun?” to which I respond that I am. They then ask “would you recommend it to other people?” to which I respond that I absolutely would not. At least not right now. Before we get into the nitty-gritty, here’s the general idea of what the Disney College Program is: Work at a low-level position somewhere at Walt Disney World. Opportunity to live at College Program housing near (but not on) Disney property. There are no college credits to be earned; that part was a lie. (I’m not earning any at least, and I have yet to meet someone who is.) That’s about it. The Disney College Program is open to current college students, or former students that graduated within the past two years. It used to be fairly selective, but that went out the window when they brought the program back post-COVID hysteria. In the past applicants were required to take part in a phone interview, but they ditched that step in an effort to get as many people in as quickly as possible to help with labor shortages. Presently, applicants are chosen solely based on their resume and whether or not they can convincingly lie about being an extrovert in the “web-based interview.” At the moment Disney is opting for quantity over quality, and some of the people I’ve met down here are proof of that. One of the biggest benefits to the College Program was the ability to put it on a resume, but that reputation has been tarnished a bit, at least if prospective employers are in the know. College Program applicants used to be able to list preferences for the type of work that they would like to do, but that died with the phone interview. Now, Disney decides the role and location on their own, and you get what you get and you don’t get upset. When most people think about working at Dis-
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BINGHAMTON REVIEW
ney World, they imagine working at a ride in one of the parks, but “attractions” is just one of many potential roles. College Program participants—or CPs, as we’re commonly called—can be assigned anything from attractions, to food service, to merchandise, to parking, to custodial, and so on. Locations outside of the four parks are fair game as well. Yeah, you might have the opportunity to work at Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in Hollywood Studios. But you’re just as likely to work in housekeeping at Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort. The work that CPs do is no different than what part-time or full-time Cast Members do. Even though Disney describes it as an internship that teaches “transferrable skills” and all of those other words that I see all over LinkedIn, CPs are not actually provided any additional classes, training, or work opportunities. We do the same work as the other Cast Members in that role or location. That does not mean that we are treated the same, however. CPs are paid $14 per hour. This is $1 fewer than the $15 per hour that full-time and part-time Cast Members are paid. While other Cast Members are free to move their schedules around between themselves as they please, CPs are only permitted to make even trades; in most situations, we cannot give away a shift without picking up another one, and vice versa. This is especially annoying, because unlike full-timers and part-timers, we cannot put in preferences for which days or times we would prefer to work; our availability is locked at 24/7 for the duration of our program. In some locations, this is fully exploited by leadership. For the past few weeks I’ve been scheduled 45 to 55 hours with only one day off, and I know people that have been scheduled 60+ hour weeks. 12 to 14 hour shifts are common, and in most locations closing is considered a CP job, because no one else wants to work that late. CPs also miss out on benefits that other Cast Members have access to, such as paid time off and Aspire (a program through which Disney will pay for a Cast Member’s college). CPs do get some benefits, though. We get a self-admission pass, which we can use to enter Disney theme parks (and water parks) for free. It was a great perk for about a month, until they started blocking us out of everything. There is not a single day in the entire month of April, and only one day in the month of May, that we are not at least partially blocked out from entering the parks. On most of the days that are only partially blocked out instead of fully blocked out we are only able to enter one park, and the majority of the time that park is Epcot. Just because we aren’t blocked out does not mean that we can actually go to the park that day, though. As a residual effect from Disney’s COVID policies, guests are required to make a park reservation for each day that they intend to go to a park. Cast Members are required to follow the same procedure. There are a limited number of reservations available, and the number available to Cast Members is significantly lower than the number available to paying guests. As a result, even on days where we aren’t blocked out, reservations are always full. The only way to get into a park is to make a reservation weeks ahead of time.
Vol. XXXIV, Issue XI
