The rule is that if you KEEP a car at the DCP, you must get a FL driver's license. This requires changing your permanent address to your apartment at the DCP. I did not take a car there, but wanted to rent one from time to time. Every time I drove into the DCP parking lot I had to check-in with the security to register a new car. My roommate brought a car and registered it only once. They never checked her license after that. My husband understood the rule that said that if you keep a car there you need to change your license, meant that if you keep a car there, but I was not keeping a car there, I was only driving occasionally. I was there for six weeks and it is required that you change your driver's license within 30 days. Security told me that they would not let me register another (rental) car unless I changed my driver's license. But this particular security guard was very combative with everyone.
If you (or your child) do plan to keep a car there, you must plan very meticulously. Most of my training was done between 9-5 on weekdays, and then I had many other things to do, I was taking an online class from my University and an Exploration Series class with Disney that was held during the day. Seeing as I have gotten my driver's license in four different states and one of those states twice, I can honestly tell you that there was no time, other than before my Traditions Class, that my schedule would have allowed me to successfully get to the DMV, get my license and get back in time for my next schedule activity -which in the first 30 days includes housing orientation, your orientation for your specific place in the world, OSHA training and so forth. Now I must say, that outside of KY when we lived on the Gulf Coast of FL it took us the least amount of time than any other place, but still over an hour. I was trying to find a three or five hour window in order to do this, and that just didn't exist during the times the DMV was open within my first 30 days there. After thirty days, most of the times I had to work was in the afternoon and late night so it would have been fine. Also, I know that in NY as a grown adult I had difficulty proving my identity and getting enough 'points' for my driver's license because my husband had gone ahead (so my daughter could finish school in our previous state) and set up all of the electricity, water. Although I did have my name on the bank account, since I didn't have a job (I was a stay at home mom) I didn't have a W-2. I did already have a passport which counted for several points, but I had to go back to the DMV in NY four separate times and, I believe I spent over 14 hours there getting that NY driver's license. Then, after all that of NY trying to figure out if I really was who I said I was, and having to change in whose name the electricity was so that I had something that reflected my address, NY issued me a driver's license that had the address from when I had lived in NY seven years earlier 350 miles away! Good thing I looked at it before I left the window.
I really don't understand how someone on the CP could prove their address because none of the electricity or water or sewage or cable is in your name, and even if one person in the apartment has it in their name what about the rest of the people? Perhaps the criteria in FL are much easier than in NY. But this 30 day driver's license criteria sure seemed to me to be a no-win situation.
My roommate also had to leave due to the illness of a family member. Her husband had been hospitalized. At first she was going to try to stay, but when it was clear that he would be in the hospital for quite some time, she decided to leave as well about a week after I did. What are the chances that both of us had to leave due to ill family members?
But I must say that for both of us, Disney was very understanding and said that family is important. The housing is not run by Disney, and they are not so magical. But I do still consider the housing a big perk for the program. It is clean, safe, well lit, well maintained and landscaped in a very pleasing manner. Although the job I had before the DCP paid about triple what I was making per hour at DCP, I think the many perks make the overall compensation pretty high value.
Unfortunately, both my roommate and I left before our friends and family could use the park passes, neither of us had to pay penalties for vacating the apartment early, no deposits on utilities or anything else. Thank you Disney!
All this being said, I do believe that not having a car could be a doable thing, but it would be quite helpful to have someone with a car there set up house for the first shopping trip for the household. My roommate was from the West Coast and said she thought the CP busses would be 'good public transportation' and even though she had not brought a car, she had someone drive her car cross country because she found the DCP busses to be unreliable. Myself and a few of my younger CP friends agreed that it was necessary to give yourself a three hour window to get to your work location and give time for the bus service to catch up on their routes. Watch out for shift changes in the mid-afternoon this is where there are many problems. This 3 hr window did include though time for us to get to costuming and get all the way to our gate after we got to the work location.
So these are my musing on having a car to drive for the DCP.