Disney Internships/Disney College Program

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by adpiucf

It's a very strange place. The people are nice, don't get me wrong, but few of those who attended a Central Florida school finish that school if they get sucked into an hourly theme park job. The park people tend to become their best friends, they move to the other side of town and even though the parks brag about their tuition reimbursement program, those who do use it can take 8 years to get through a traditional 4-year program.

I know this is a super-old post, but this doesn't surprise me at all. I grew up on the Panhandle and the kids who went to UCF were typically those who wanted to do something in sports management or performing arts (but not music--music kids to to FSU), and they got stuck in the entertainment lifestyle and didn't finish.

[ASTalumna06]

I have 2 friends who have participated in the program. One just finished a couple weeks ago, and he's had a good time, but he's ready to go back to school. He had a great experience, but he knew it wasn't going to last forever.. nor did he want it to.

On the other hand, my other friend entered the program, dropped out of college (she was going to school in NH), and now 5 years later, she's still there. I just saw her recently, and she's obsessed with all things Disney. I mean.. OBSESSED. All she does is talk about Mickey, and the ghost stories of each ride, and she wants every piece of Disney merchandise ever created. I think her maturity level has actually gone down over the years. It's unreal.

We had worked at an amusement park in NH during college summers, and it's like she never got away from it. I moved on.. I moved to a different state, I have a real job, grown up friends, a social life.. and she's still talking about covering lunch breaks on the roller coaster and complaining about teenagers being lazy, and her hourly pay isn't much more than we were making back then.

I like going to Disney World once in a blue moon, but I'm not insane about it. People take it waaay too seriously. I had to work in Orlando last year, and in that office, there was this one woman who had a cubicle filled with Disney stuff. When I started my training class, I went around the room and asked people their name, their job role, and something fun to do in the area. One girl said, ".. and of course there's Disney World, but who wants to go there?" .. she obviously didn't like it too much. Then crazy woman piped up and said, "How dare you talk about Disney like that!" and they legitimately almost got in a fight in the middle of class. The girl was like "Hey, I just don't like it, no big deal," and crazy woman was acting completely irrationally and flipping out about it. Like.. uh.. it's not that serious!

It's amazing what Disney can do to some people.