Whether you are there for business, vacation or you’re working there; Disney is a magical place. Filled with little kids’ dreams of being a prince or princess or maybe they’re more adventurous and choose to be a pirate (you know there are female pirates…right?). Parent’s get to see the joy in their kids eyes (even their adult kids’ eyes) and also get to watch the parade in Magic Kingdom. Here at Cuyahoga Community College, you can even live out the dream to work there if you apply through the Disney College program: a semester long paid internship where you get to be a cast member at one of the Disney parks or a resort.
Disney also has events called RunDisney where they put on five separate themed running events around the year from the Princess event in February, the Star Wars rival run event in April, and many more. When you work for Disney, you get dollars off on those races if they happen around the time you’re down there working as an intern. Participating in those races is literally magical; the half marathon you run through Disney World Park as well as Epcot and there are characters on each race course. The Photo Pass pictures they take are amazing it captures the beauty of the races no matter how much you’re dying by the end of the race.
The photos you can get taken of you and your herd (or in other words your family) is amazing. They have magic shots too, where you can even get fairy wings put on your back or at Animal Kingdom you can point at a banshee. The magic of Disney is never ending and attending during the different themed events is even more awesome. The Festival of The Arts (which is when I attended Disney) has different attractions plastered all around Epcot you can get your pictures with. For example, you can get your picture as the Mona Lisa. There are several things in Epcot during the Festival of The Arts and if you time it right, you can even get a glimpse of the flowers and gardens festival that follows the art festival.
The Disney College Program through Tri-C provides you with a uniform you wear every day depending on your location. You get to possibly work hand in hand with the characters whether it’s as their keeper or as their photo pass photographer. You could actually be one of the characters, but there is more to that than just applying through the college program; you would have to physically go to Disney and audition to be a character whether it’s a face character or a character like Stitch or Mickey.
When you’re there on vacation you see all the wonders it brings especially to the little kids. Yes, it sometimes costs an arm and a leg to go to Disney on vacation, but you can live the magic by becoming a cast member yourself through Tri-C Career Center. They can let you know the deadlines on when to apply and what classes and GPA you need to even get to the step of applying and getting college credit for doing it. Then you’ll be on your way to believing Mickey Mouse is your boss and that Chip n Dale are your best friends.