Hard Truth #1 About the Disney College Program: Your Roommate Could Be Unhinged

Like most things in life, the Disney College Program can be a WONDERFUL experience…but at the same time, it can really stink.

There are several hard truths to the Disney College Program (DCP) that myself and several of the team members at AE had to endure throughout their program. We’re here to kick off a series of hard truths with something that a lot of people have to consider long before they actually arrive for their program. Housing, and more importantly, ROOMMATES.

When doing the DCP, you can opt to live in Disney-provided housing at Flamingo Crossings Village, where only other CPs are allowed to live and where rent is already taken out of your paycheck. You can also opt to live off Disney property!

Most people do opt to live at Flamingo Crossings, though, as not having to worry about paying rent is a big perk. Plus, Disney provides transportation for Cast Members between Flamingo and their respective job locations.

There’s only one problem that causes a lot of anxiety among participants: choosing a roommate. You must choose roommates ahead of time, and you’re typically choosing from people you don’t know. A lot of folks share “about me” posts on Facebook and Instagram to try to find potential roomie matches. You can also go totally random and allow Disney to pick for you.

This can, as you’d guess, be either REALLY GOOD or REALLY BAD. Well, we chatted with a former DCP participant who had a really bad roommate experience. They’re choosing to remain anonymous, but this story had us in utter SHOCK. For the sake of the story, we’ll call this person Jane.

Jane participated in the DCP in spring 2017 and extended until August, working as a lifeguard. Flamingo Crossings Village wasn’t built yet, so Jane lived in Patterson Court for the first half of her program, and then switched to living at The Commons for her extension.

When living at Patterson Court, there were five girls living in a 2-bedroom apartment. From day one, Jane felt that something was off with one of the new roommates.

“It actually started the very first day,” she said. “I had gone to bed early, because I was taking classes for school still. I wanted to get up early so that I could do some homework before Traditions the next day.”

Traditions is the “onboarding” class that Cast Members must attend before they start working in their new role. It’s a very big, exciting day!

“Eventually, all the other girls came back to the room and started showering and getting ready for bed. I was still awake, and heard one of the girls telling another that she thought I was weird. I pretended to be asleep and that I didn’t hear it.” We’ll call this roommate Sally.

From then on, things continued to get worse. All the roommates had followed each other on Instagram prior to doing the program, but Sally randomly unfollowed Jane on Instagram and removed her as a follower from her own account.

Later, things started to go missing. Over the months, the girls realized they were missing articles of clothing and even underwear. Another roommate eventually told Jane that she found all of their missing items hiding in Sally’s hamper.

Sally had been stealing hundreds of dollars worth of clothing, and now, for sanitary reasons, Jane and the other girls didn’t want it back. They filed a report with security for the missing items, and Sally was then removed and put in another housing complex. She was not terminated from her role in the DCP, and even spread rumors stating that it was her own choice to leave and that Jane and the other girls had gotten “violent” with her.

Luckily, these issues didn’t affect Jane’s work life. Lifeguarding was honestly a respite for Jane, as she didn’t have to deal with issues when she was at work. The good news is that she continued to have roommates throughout her college experience and didn’t allow the bad roommate to put a damper on future living situations.

However, she was way pickier than before with roommates and was a bit paranoid when it came to her things. She always made sure to shut and lock her doors when she wasn’t around for safety and privacy. Totally understandable!

This story isn’t to discourage you from doing the DCP, but to put emphasis on the importance of trying to get to know someone before agreeing to live with them. If something seems off about someone’s online profile on social media, don’t agree to live with them!

If you’re like Jane and end up living with someone who originally seemed normal but ends up being bad news, don’t hesitate to tell people you trust and to seek help from the apartment security and front office.

We’re always here to provide you with the best Disney news and advice, so make sure to follow along for more so that you’re always in the loop.

Looking for more DCP tips? Click here! 

Do you have a roommate horror story? Share it with us in the comments!

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