Quick question about roles that you can work in as part of the CRP. I did the ICP last year and they were pretty strict on changing roles etc so I know the chances are slim but I was wondering if anyone could help answer anyway! So to start with, can you be a character or character attendant as part of the CRP? If you can't apply for those roles officially, is there any way you can change to those roles once you get there? And when you're working within the pavilion do you stay in the same role for the whole year or move around? And also is there any way you can work outside of the pavilion? Either pick up shifts in other parks or transfer altogether? Thanks
I'm not sure about every question you asked there but there are 2 job roles: Merchandise or Food and beverage. (in the UK anyway, some countries also have an attraction). I'm pretty certain you can ONLY work in your pavilion in Epcot, although I have heard you can do some sort of job shadowing for other roles (in an attraction for example) if your lucky although this would be in your own time and also unpaid. Someone correct me if I'm wrong
Yep, with the CRP you are only allowed to work in your country's pavilion in Epcot in one of the two or three (depending on if the country has an attraction) job roles; F&B, merchandise or attractions. You might be able to shadow other jobs (as Gemma said), but since the visa is one almost exclusively for cultural representatives, you can't work in a different park or different area of the park. You have to stay within your assigned department, but, at least in F&B, the roles you can do are quite varied, as you go through numerous different roles, eventually leading to becoming a server. I haven't heard as much about merch so I'd have thought there was far less scope for different types of role in this area. I don't believe that it's possible to be a character or character attendant as part of the CRP - the idea is that you're there to represent your country, and those two roles aren't the most effective to be able to do that!
In merch you rotate through the shops, kidcot and the cart you can be rota'd in to do crowd control at special events in other areas and to take part in one off events e.g. crowd control at the eat to the beat concerts, candlielight processional or sometimes at xmas time to do the xmas things or as i once was when a corporation books out the space between canada and uk (cant remember what it is called now) they had a bunch of us from each country stand there and greet the people a they arrived in various languages with charaters
Thanks for your answers guys. It's a shame you can't do more to represent your country than just work in a shop or a restaurant! Not that I'm not still excited to do that! I was on F&B in Animal Kingdom before and loved it! But being a character performer as Alice or Wendy or Mary Poppins would be a good representation of the country! (I've heard some awful Alice accents before! ha) Or one of those actors that plays out those little scenes in the UK pavilion, haha. So you aren't even allowed to pick up extra shifts in another park? The Visa doesn't allow it? Oh and whilst I'm asking questions.. how about taking extra courses at Disney University? Do you if your allowed to or if you can fit it in? Thanks guys! xxx
I'm not sure what you mean by the acting thing in the UK pavillion but that might be an option.. no idea though! As far as I know, the Visa only allows you to work in the UK pavillion because it's a job an american can't do, and I've heard before that CRP's cant take extra courses at Disney University because you need an Education Visa or something along those lines Again, I'm not 100% sure so if someone can confirm it that would be great
no you cant be one of the strolling players - they and the bands etc are contracted and have media visas not the q1 at DU you can go to the seminars and and things they offer e.g. how to create a great resume, keys to success etc and you can also go hear disney managers give speeches and stuff as well but actua; accredited courses you have to be attending a partm=ner uni to uni of centrl florida to attend and you actually have to pay something to the uni for it i think. there are other things you can do tho: sports - they hold regular fun runs, chairty run and the marathons plus housing have sports events and theres a bowlathon charity work - feed the homeless at soup kitchen, work at give kids the world village (on a wed/sun - days may have changed) volunteer at cipo to visit schools, scouts, girlguides etc to talk about life in your home country choir - if you are a very good singer and can arrange tmie off with ya managers u can audition to sing in the choir for the christmas candlelight processional housing events - grocery bingo, bbqs, pool parties, formals etc plus you get a good discount on things like the segway tours and the behind the magic tours they do i did a few fun runs - one through celebration and one around epcot but im totally unfit only did 5 k lol but tthey were still fun i also did all of the colunteer opportunities. I did soup kitchen once and i did gktw once but i did about 15 visits with cipo and to be honest they were the best basically a bunch of people go out to do the talk so you meet people from another country and chat and stuff thenm you usually get a free meal at some place on the way back and after a ffew days later you get a thank you note and a little gift from the head of epcot its very cool lol when you do gktw you get a little cert to say u have done that as well i cant sing so i didnt do the chopir thing - apparantly its a lot of work tho so u have to really watn to do it the housing events are also a lot of fun
Ive heard you can volunteer with the make a wish foundation?? is this true and what does it involve? if anyone could help that would be great - i really want to do this if it is possible!! xxx
Thanks pinkspider! That was really helpful and made me way more excited to apply! I was starting to think that being in a fulltime shop job for a year might get a bit long (although of course being Disney it probably wouldn't!). Which is why I asked about changing roles and mixing it up a bit. But anyway you've just made me realise/remember from my ICP how much outside of work actually goes on! There's so many events and cool things to do like voluntears etc that I didn't get to do before because I wasn't there for long enough. And stuff that's even more valuable on the CV too! Yay! xxx
stacy - you can volunteer with give kids the world - this is disney's custom built resort/village where some of the make a wish kids go - i dont think you can volunteer with make a wish directly - give kids the world is where all the kdis from places like make a wish and starlight etc go harriett -0 i didnt do merch but i have friends who did and they really enjoyed it - you dont stay in same place all day you rotate to different locations - you also get to do a class fb dont get to do called merchertainment lol. You also get to work near the characters - winnie the pooh, piglet, eeyore and tigger all hang out in the toy soldier shop - kidcot is also placed inside there and the characters are just next to it
Thanks pinkspider youve been so great!! did you ever volunteer at give kids the world? or know anyone who did? what do you do just hang with the kids or do you actually take them to the parks?? xx
I did!! During my program in 2008! You don't take them to the parks as far as I know... I spent the afternoon at the Give Kids The World village (the housing complex) where we did facepainting and drawing and stuff like that because the parents/carers had the afternoon to themselves to go to the parks or downtown disney and have fun without the kids... because we were with them It was a fun afternoon!
i did pretty much the same at give kids the world- when we arrived the families brought the kids over and then you were 1 person to a kid. We played some games did some drawing face painting etc and generally kept our kids entertained for an hour or so. then we took them to like a canteen place where we sat with them and had tea (things like pizza, fries, burgers etc and then icecream / cakes after) then we did village idol with them and basically all the kdis and the vokunteers sat in the audience and various kids went on stage to perform ( my incredibly hyperactive little boy sang joy to the world in july lol) obv everyone was clapped and told how awesome they were and at the end they said everyone won and all the kids got medals. We then got them some goody bags and sweets from a local girl guide group and gave them back to their parents - i only did it on a wed so not sure if a sunday is any different. also you dont know if the kid you get is one of the ones who is poorly or just a sibling and your told before hand that your not tot ask them any personal questions and that if you say you will write them /e0-mail them then you have to do it because otherwise your letting them down and stuff. It was fun but exhausting the little boy i had was completely hyper - didnt want to do arts and crafts and instead wanted me to chase him around the little play area for an hour. then when he was suppoised to be eating he was jumping over his chair, running and sliding on the floor and generally bouncing off the walls lol.
The year went wayyyyy too fast. I seems more like a few months than an actual year. I did Merch and I loved it, you get much more guest interaction than any of the other roles on the CRP. No two days are ever the same. Plus, you being in the UK you get to see the characters all the time. As for the switching roles thing, it did happen while I was there, my brother actually switched from attractions to f&b with another guy. I think that this is a very rare occurrence though. Both people have to be around the same time in their contracts and express their reasons for wanting the switch. It is completely up to the leaders whether they will allow it to happen or not.
With the switching roles thing it happened 3 times in my entire year that people moved from merch to fb and vice versa but generally they do not like to let you do that so I wouldnt go and think it is an option really as they def want very clear reasons why you want to switch and if its just because you want to try something different they wont let you. Also there are more fb roles than merch so loads of people who want to do merch get given fb instead so its a bit rude to take a merch role that someone else could have haved when you could have put fb down as your first choice
thank you catfish & pinkspider i understand it a lot more now - so we kinda fill in to let the parents have a few hours to themselves! HAHA @ your hyper kid story, i bet the mum and dad were SO grateful for a little time away during their holiday!!! ive been reading a lot of the boards pinkspider are you applying again this year? xx
Definitely do Give Kids the World...I was able to do it in 2006 on the J1A program and it was definitely worth while. (I actually started doing it because I was taking a Disney class, one of the requirements on the J1A visa, and we had to volunteer somewhere. So glad I did it there!) One night there were only five kids and about 20 of us and it was so much fun. Didn't even have time on the CRP...being the perm assignor I practically opened and closed the restaurant (well the podium at least!) and for the most part didn't have Wednesdays or Sundays off. And then when I did get Wednesday's off I was busy with Candlelight rehearsals! I recommed Candlelight so much...and although I shouldn't say this, you don't actually have to sing. Unlike the ENCORE Cast Choir and Orchestra (which I also did and was simply amazing! I recommend that too!) you don't have to audition; you sign up online (but you have to be quick...when I did the 2009 season all 300 soprano places were filled up in 1 minute! You really have to be quick off the mark!) and then have to attend at least 10 rehearsals (there are about 6 a week) including an overnight one (where you run through the show three times for sound and lighting and general show preperation). The reason I don't like to say you don't have to sing is because I've done shows where the people behind me couldn't sing at all and it's really off putting! However, it is an amazing experience. I got to be on stage with Whoopi Goldberg! I am such a major fan and was only standing a few feet away! As for changing roles...no can do I'm afraid. The Visa requirements are too strict. I only know of one person who has ever switched roles and that was on the J1A program where one of my friends changed from that program to a Professional Internship...one of the only internationals to do so I think! Jealous. And as it has been said before, you have to have an extremely good reason for switching between F&B and Merch. The Q1 visa is pretty much specifically designed for Disney (as they are one of the only companies that hire people for roles that cover every single one of the requirements). You can shadow other roles...it's worth it. It's not what you know, but who you know! Hope this helps and gives you some ideas of things to do. Really get out there and do things...even if it's just helping to set up for a Cast celebration; a few friends and I did that a couple of times during our CRP and had a laugh! I'd love to apply again but the process just takes too long now, and besides, I work for DCL now so I'm getting my Disney fix and seeing the world!
Agree with everyone else. The only person I knew who switched was because he had a tattoo on his arm. He thought he could wear long sleeves in F&B, but the managers thought he'd overheat and pass out lol, so they moved him to merch where he'd be in the nice air-con . I didn't get chance to volunteer as I was never off those days. Only ever did one housing trip too...to be honest, they're at awkward times (like having to catch a bus at 4pm, when you're bound to be at work lol). But you'll be doing so much with mates, you won't mind the organised stuff . Plus, as Louisa said, getting onto them is so hard! I tried to get onto a Behind the Magic for Haunted Mansion 3 times and was never quick enough, despite sitting by the computer the minute applications opened!
Hi! HOW HOW HOW did your friend manage to change to the Internship DisneyGibbs?? I would love to know!
