The Land of Opportunity!

One thing that may not be well known about working at Disney is the amazing amount of opportunities the company provides for their employees, especially for college program participants. Over the course of my program, I had the opportunity to sign up for many special events and tours. However, they were usually send via email and they were first come first serve, therefore I cannot not say I experienced all of the events presented. Nonetheless, I have compiled a list of every cool thing I got to experience since while I was a cast member.

1. Meeting Celebrities

While this particular opportunity wasn't just for college program students, it had to be one of the coolest parts of working at Disney. As you know, Walt Disney World is famous for bringing families and friends together for a good time. Therefore it is safe to assume that celebrities like to visit with their families as well.

Over the course of my college program, there were quite a few celebrities that graced Disney World with their presence. Just to name a few celebrities that visited: Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Johnny Depp (I swooned over this one), Celine Dion, and the entire cast of Modern Family and The Middle. While I'm sure there were more celebrities that visited, I cannot remember all of them from the top of my head.

Now you all might be asking, "Did you get to meet any of them?" The answer is a tad complicated. Daisy and I had the chance to meet Celine Dion when she came to visit Pete's Silly Sideshow in Magic Kingdom. I would show you guys pictures but we were not allowed to keep them, unfortunately. However, the entire interaction with her and her family was beyond amazing. She was extra sweet to all the characters (Minnie, Goofy, and Donald were all there as well) and even gave every single character a hug and acted as if they were the only celebrities in the room. Celine's little boy was absolutely precious. Overall, the family was down to Earth and an absolute pleasure to meet. I do wish, though, that I had gotten the chance to meet the family when I was not hanging out with Daisy, or any other character for that matter, because then I could say absolutely yes I meet Celine Dion instead of having to say my friend Daisy did.

2. Special Backstage Tours

One of the coolest and most common opportunities offered to CP's and regular cast members are the backstage tours where you actually get to learn a thing or two about an area you never would have gotten to learn about as a normal guest. By this I mean, tours that are not offered to the general public. Examples of the special tours include:

• Behind the Scenes of Fantasmic and Popular Attractions: While the primary purpose of this tour was to learn about the technology it takes to create Fantasmic and popular attractions like Tower of Terror, you get to stand on the stand on the top of the mountain on the Fant set and look out to the empty stadium as if you were a performer. 
• The Haunted Mansion tour: You get to walk through the ride and get to learn about a lot of the small details and history behind.
• Non-Disney related tours: Sometimes there were field trips scheduled to non-Disney related places like Winter Gardens and Clearwater Beach. At one point, I believe they took a massive amount of CP's too Universal Studios which is a little strange considering that they are Walt Disney World's competition.

3. Commercial and Film Type Opportunities

Twice during my program was there an opportunity to be in some sort of commercial or likewise filming. The first was labeled as Fantasyland Filming, where the people who were selected to participate had the chance to ride one of three rides: Goofy's Barnstormer, Dumbo, and Seven Dwarfs Mine train. Funnily enough, it resulted that the footage taken from that event is to be used for the new Soarin' film. While I did not personally have the chance to participate in that event, many of my friends did and they said it was exhausting since filming took about four hours but it was also a lot of fun.

I did, however, get to participate in the second and I believe last filming type opportunity that was offered during my program. Only 30 people were chosen so I got really to be part of the few participants chosen. The project just so happens to have been a #DisneyKids commercial with the goal to attract more preschool aged children to visit Disney World. The commercial was of a little girl's first time riding Dumbo and YES I can be seen as an extra! :)

Feel free to watch the commercial and feel free to leave a comment down below if you can find me. *Hint: I'm at the very end*

4. Giveaways

There is this place in the Hub, the all access site to a cast member's schedule and additional benefits, that's called Magic Backstage where there were new giveaways posted every once and a while. These giveaways could range from a 4 day 3 night cruise or even a night at the Cinderella Castle (this one I only saw posted once and was a huge hit). I believe I also saw a week long trip to the Aulani Resort in Hawaii being given away at one point.

Disney Housing would hold Welcome Events that were always themed something different every week or every other week. During the housing events, there was always free food (very important), rare characters doing meet and greets, and prizes being given away. One time they gave away foldable lawn chairs that are perfect for people who have a patio attached to their apartment. Most of the time the prizes were things like water bottle, pens, and spray bottles though. Nonetheless, you could not go wrong with attending a Welcome Event because who doesn't like free food and rare characters?

How My Dreams Came True!

In life, everything happens for a reason! This I have learned over the last few years, if not over the course of my entire life. The greatest example I can think of is how I landed the character performer gig. First off, I want to clarify that I did not consciously know that I wanted to work at Disney World as a college program participant let alone as a performer. People always ask me how I became a character performer if it wasn't a dream I already had. The answer, in short, is fate.

During Fall 2013, I was not in a good place in my life. I was living with a very crappy roommate and her obnoxious boyfriend, who in all honesty was the meanest man I have ever met. I won't go into specifics of why he wins that title, but I will say that he is the kind of man that is not only physically abusive but also emotionally abusive which has scarred my roommate for life.  

One day, I found myself on the Disney Careers website and to be honest I cannot for the life of me remember what brought me to the site in first place. I have always been a Disney fan so perhaps I was curious about their job openings, I do not know or remember. The point of the matter is though, I found myself on the College Program website and before I knew it I applied for the program out of no where! I wasn't planning it. I did not know it would change my life forever. It just happened. 

Before I knew it, I got a web-based interview and passed it with flying colors. However, it was phone interview that changed my life forever. See, as I mentioned before, I did not know I wanted to be a character performer. I honestly did not even know it was a possibility. The recruiter I was being interviewed by asked me whether I was planning on going to the audition that week. I was interested, so she promptly told me that it was two days away in the same city I was currently living. It wasn't until later that I found out how lucky I was, because there are only a handful of different cities where the auditions take place and I just so happened to be living in one of them. Not to mention that I was informed about it only a mere two days beforehand, therefore I was not given a sufficient amount of time to panic and decide against going.

The audition process was simple, fun, and nerve wrecking! I went to the Austin, Texas audition (shout out to those who auditioned with me) and it was insane. Over 200 people showed up and yet it was completely organized and under control. The first step was check in and get measured. A quick tip: to be a character performer you must be within a certain height range which breaks down as follows:

mouse height - 55.5 inches to 60.5 inches

munk height - 61 inches to 63.5 inches

Pluto height - 66 inches to 68/9 inches (I'm a little fuzzy on this one).

Goofy height - 71.5 inches to 75.5 inches

The second step was to learn a very simple march across the floor as if you in a parade. It is important to show a big personality in this step. Now, after this step they cut the large majority of people so don't be discouraged if this happens to you. Chances are it wasn't that you did something wrong but that you weren't what they needed at the time. This is especially true if you don't fit in to the height ranges I mentioned above.

The third step, if you were not cut, is to animate a scenario they give you for two 8 counts and then learn a dance routine that progresses in difficulty as you learn it. This was by far my favorite part of the audition process because it was incredibly fun! The song picked for the dance is always very upbeat and catchy so be warned it might be stuck in your head for the next couple weeks. The important thing to remember during this part of the audition is to have fun and show the casting directors your personality and enthusiasm. They are more likely to remember the girl/guy who is having the time of their life and smiling all the time than the person sitting alone in a corner miserable. Also, take the opportunity to befriend as many people as you can during the audition. You never know who will end up working with you in the future, and often times the people you met during the audition become some of your best friends. 

Once you are done, they may or may not ask you to stay back for additional pictures. If they do, you are most likely being considered for a face character role. If they don't call you, that doesn't mean you are not being considered though! The results didn't come until 2 weeks after I auditioned, but I got in and I cannot begin to describe how amazing that feeling was. 

The letter I got informing me I was selected to be a character performer!

In all, I definitely recommend auditioning to be a character performer for Disney World, whether or not it be for the college program or a part-time/full-time position. It was honestly the best experience of my life and I miss it dearly every day I am not there. Being a character performer opened my eyes to the different adventures out there and got me out of my comfort zone for a little while. The memories I made during my program are irreplaceable and I wouldn't change a thing. So, if you're considering giving the Disney College Program and/or being a character performer a chance, I definitely encourage you to do so.