"I will go most anywhere to find where I belong..."

This post is going to be completely dedicated to Disney College Program Housing information, so bear with me. As I said in a post before Disney does have designated housing for College Program participants. There are three apartment complexes to choose from. Vista Way, Chatham Square, and Patterson Court. While I ended up living in Patterson I spent many a night in each apartment complex with friends so I feel fairly educated on the pros and cons of each place, so here we go.


Vista Way:
Vista Way is the original College Program apartments so that obviously comes with its advantages and disadvantages. While it is honorable to have lived in the first, these apartments are also extremely dated. They are also the cheapest of the apartments. While this may be appealing to some, it also attracts a very large party crowd. Vista Way is really just a place people use to lay there head. It is not somewhere you would go if you wanted to create a home for yourself while you were down there. If you wanted a quiet place to escape to after work, this place is not for you. That being said Vista Way is the closest to the strip. It is within walking distance of a Chick Fil A, Wendy’s, Santa Fe, and a Walgreens. Keeping with the positives here, it is also the home of the main College Program offices and the bus stop at Vista Way is where the bus drivers use to switch so you are rarely left waiting like you can be at the other stops. But keep in mind, even when these conveniences the place is nicknamed “Vista Lay” for its notoriety in the party scene.  

Chatham Square:
Chatham Square is the second most expensive complex (however is differs from Patterson by just a few dollars) and it certainly the prettiest in regards to landscaping. There is a bus stop directly in front of the complex and within walking distance of a large field people use for sports. With Chatham you will deal with Housing Events. Housing Events are put on by the College Program people and they are a way of uniting all the students in various activities throughout your program. You go to wherever the event is located, tents are set up, you get free food, there are meet and greet characters, and usually some sort of fun theme. While these might be close they also create quite an inconvenience the day of and they can be loud. These are also the most coveted of the Housing so they run out of Chatham quickly (this happened to me and we had lined up at 4:00 in the morning.)

Patterson Court:
Home sweet home. I personally loved living in Patterson. It is the most expensive of the Housing Complexes, but keep in mind your rent is taken directly from your paycheck so it’s easy to get used to not missing that money. It has a pretty pool and it relatively small so it creates easy entrances and exits. It’s within walking distance of a Publix and most of the Disney Classes are held in the classrooms on Patterson’s complex. The only strong disadvantage was not having a bus stop, but the Chatham stop is roughly an 8 minute walk.

Keep in mind this was two years ago, so I am sure things have changed and I am forgetting things. Check out these two bloggers for more info!! http://thedcplife.blogspot.com/2013/11/disney-college-program-housing.html, http://thefrodiaries.blogspot.com/2014/03/an-introduction-to-disney-housing-and.html