Hi there! I'll be joining the CRP in March (F&B) and I was just wondering what kind of preferences you can make in regards to housing. Obviously I get that there's no guarantee, but I've heard that you fill out a form prior to departure, where you can make certain choices? Such as: can you make a preference of how many bedrooms you're put in and which housing complex etc.? Thanks Adam @adamhattan www.hattantimesdoesdisney.com
I heard that the housing form's are only given out to American College Program kids. I think for the rest of us its just the luck of the draw. Somewhere on Disney's International site I think it said they put you wherever there is space and after something like three weeks you can change apartments if you want to. Don't quote me on that though! : As for complex's, I think internationals are put in either The Commons or Patterson Court. Then again, my friend did the international college exchange program and she was put in Vista Way. Maybe because she was going through a Canadian college that was connected to an American university? :-\
Hi Adam! My friend just arrived for her program and she said they are now combining all the programs into all the complexes. So you could potentially be in the Commons, Patterson Court, Vista Way or Chatham Square. The bedrooms range from 1 bedroom/2 people to 4 bedrooms/8 people. Right now there is a housing freeze so no one can request to move apartments or complexes until February but you are able to request to move once during your contract. Hope that helps! Julia
At our interviews in November, we were told that we'd be able to submit our preferences for any of the complexes before we arrived. I'm guessing we'll get an email closer to our start date, of course it's just a preference form, we may not get our #1 choice, but the whole process is changing this year!
Thanks everyone for your replies... Looks like we'll just be crossing our fingers and seeing how it goes. Adam @adamhattan www.hattantimesdoesdisney.com
Im going over the 18th of June for my 2th program, working in F&B Norway pavilion. Last time (2010-2011) you were just placed somewhere, but Commons and Patterson Court was the international housing complexes. Commons was just for international Cast Members, except Morroco (which lives somewhere else because its not a Disney owned pavilion). As of middle 2012 when the new housing management came in and took over from Price Management, they wanted to stop the heavy partying and trashing of apartments (especially at Commons which is no 1 party place, even though Vista Way is good too). They believe mixing internationals with Americans will help this. I think its cool that we can live with who we want, my best friends were American and I would def live with em but were not allowed. I lived 9 months at Patterson apt 2307 (real nice view) and 7101 (right next to security), which has around 15 buildings, this complex is the newest one (2008?) and the apartments are much nicer than Commons one (which may have animals and look really bad). The downside of Patterson is that you dont have a washing machine and dryer in ur apartment, there are washing houses around the place, not more than a minute or two from ur building. So its not a big issue... They are cheaper than Commons because of this. I generally like Patterson really well, because its a nice complex and the pool and gym are better than Commons. One more downside is that you have to walk 4-5 minutes from the gate to get to Chatham Square to take the bus, but if you live in Commons building 29 or something u have more walk time to get to the club house where the bus goes from (I think its more, Commons is huge and living all the way in the back must suck). Patterson is a quiet complex though, its not too much partying going on, but ofcourse it happens. Its only 5 international buildings, the rest is Americans. The internationals tend to hang with internationals and the Americans with the Americans... Commons I lived in building 5, which is close to everything you need. 3 minutes from gate and club house. I got a pretty nice apartment. 531. Window in the bathroom and everything (I loved that) and it was in the corner so we had an okay view. I rented a carpet cleaner at Walgreens and the water coming out was BLACK! But after that and some IKEAing it was liveable. I moved to get over to the parties and friends. Commons is pretty wild if ur into parties, but security is spot on if it gets too wild. But its okay with parties if youre not too noisy etc... Im not sure what more nice to say about Commons, its just where everything happens sort of. But I was not there because of the parties, I was basically there for the job... If ur a party animal, choose Commons or Vista. Vista Way, built in 1980(?) is old, some apartments were pretty big and nice though. They have a hot tub (but u dont wanna go in there, lot of stuff happens there). Its big and a bit confusing, seems like a dark place. But Im actually considering to prefer it because its pretty big and you can meet a lot of people there, they are closest to the stores and everything. (Not close to Chatham, Patterson and Commons, about 15-20 min walk, 4 min drive). Chatham Square, never been inside the gate, I know nothing. So I guess if u like to have a nice apartment, chill and take life easy, choose Patterson. If you like to party, choose Commons or Vista Way. If you like a big diversity, choose Vista. I think its the biggest and filled up with people from everywhere.
