Morning Everyone!
A fair warning in advance, this blog post isn’t about anything I’ve paid/booked/sent off lately as, besides the Police Background Check, August is a very dull boring month – nothing to do for the program except wait and get excited all over again. Also, in case you haven't noticed: My titles of posts are Disney songs, go check themout if you're bored.
This blog post is just going to be about the ‘Living’ component of the Disney International College Program (ICP). It’s been the main talk in the FaceBook group we have, it’s gotten us all excited about the possible places we may live, who we want to share rooms with (though it’s not guaranteed) and how many rooms we hope to have in our apartment. Personally I’m not too fussed, though I think a 4 bedroom apartment would be extremely crowded and overwhelming at first, I’m sure it’s something that you could get used to, but it’s not ideal for me.
To break it down for those who have no idea about the apartments – those who aren’t in the program, because let’s face it everyone in the program knows the whole ‘Living’ component – if not: where have you been? Apartments are 1, 2, 3 and 4 bedrooms (obviously depending on the apartment), which are shared two people per bedroom, and there are four complexes: Vista Way, The Commons, Patterson Court and Chatham Square. Buildings are co-ed, however individual units/apartments are not. Through the grapevine and reading other blogs, Australians and New Zealanders usually end up in Vista Way, but there are a few cases where Aussies and NZers have been placed in other complexes.
Thanks to the internet I’ve pulled information from several websites, which can be found in the ‘Websites’ tab. I’ll be mainly talking about Vista, Patterson and Chatham since The Commons do not house for the ICP and plus, it’s hard to find information/pictures of that complex. Each room in each complex contain the following amenities upon your arrival:
Bedroom
Dresser With Mirror
Nightstand
Two Twin Beds
Dining Room
1 Table With Four Chairs
Living Room
Couch
Chair
Two End Tables
Computer Desk And Chair
Coffee Table
Additional Items Provided
Shower curtain
Two vanity wastebaskets
Kitchen appliances, utensils, and dishes
Local phone service and one central phone
Maintenance of the apartments, including pest control
All utilities, including water, electricity and waste disposal
24-hour security
Cable television hook-ups
Vista Way
Vista Way (VW) is the most likely housing complex for both American College Program and International College Program Members – I guess that’s why it’s a lot bigger than the other three sites. A lot of Vista Way has been renovated over the past few years, which was well over due according to a few blogs and sites. It’s the oldest complex, but has a lot more activities/amenities available to Cast Members. At Vista Way you pay the lowest amount of rent out of the other complexes.
The following list contains facilities available for those at VW. I don’t know how legit the list is, but these times were commonly listed in several websites.
Disney Learning Centre
Clubroom Thirtheen501
Laundry Facilities On The Ground Floor Of Each Building
Pavilion
Fitness Centre
2 Hot Tubs
Outdoor Pool Table
2 Swimming Pools
Basketball Court
2 Racquetball Courts
Tennis Court
Volleyball Court
Patterson Court
Patterson Court (PC) is the most expensive complex to live in, I assume that’s because it’s the newest complex – opened in 2008. It’s the only complex without a bus stop, to catch the bus you have to waltz on over to Chatham Square to their bus stop. According to websites it’s a 5 minute walk or up to a 10 minute walk depending whereabouts you are living at Patterson and how slow/fast of a walker you are.
The following list contains facilities available for those at PC; again these facilities below are those I found commonly in lists provided by blogs and websites (compared to VW there’s hardly anything!).
Laundry facilities near buildings 1, 4, 9 and 13
Computer lab
1 swimming pool
Fitness centre
Outdoor pool table
Chatham Square
Chatham Square (CS) is located literally across the street from Mickey’s Retreat and in terms of rent costs – it’s priced between VW and PC’s rent. Due to the closeness to Mickey’s Retreat you have CS’s facilities and amenities plus that of Mickey’s Retreat. Chatham shares their bus terminal with the PC crew, but at least at CS you don’t have to walk as far as it’s located just outside the security gates!
CS was opened in 2002 for Cast Members use, it has a few more facilities to that of PC (which surprises me, you’d think PC being the newer one would have more facilities and amenities), but not as much as VW, but CS does have the advantage of being close to Mickey’s Retreat as I said before.
Laundry facilities in buildings 2, 7, 15 and 19
1 swimming pool
Computer lab
Fitness centre
Outdoor pool table
Tennis court
Volleyball court
So that pretty much concludes me regurgitating information from several websites and blogs, it’s nice to have it all one place though. I’llprobably go off and watch some tours of the complexes again. All seem good to me, so I’m not totally fussed where I end up living. Each have their positives and negatives, some more than others, I just want to get over there already!
Have a magical day!~
