Thanksgiving Vacation

I was so excited to have my family come join me in Disney for Thanksgiving!  Between my regular days off and giving away shifts, I was able to have the entire time off which I was so glad about! Even living in Disney, I was SO looking forward to a Disney vacation with my family!

Home for the holidays!

MVMCP #2

I got to work a Parade Audience Control (PAC) shift at the Magic Kingdom! Since my shift was on a Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party night, I got to wear the special costume too!

My roommate Stephanie also worked at the party, doing a treat shift to pass out the
hot chocolate and cookies, so of course we had to take a picture in our cute costumes!!

MVMCP #1

I went to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party with some of my friends from work and we had a blast! As Vacation Planners, we all got tickets to enjoy the party. We sell the tickets at our booths, so it's nice that we are able to have some fun through product knowledge and experience the wonderful event ourselves!

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!

2015-2016 Global Ambassador Panel

I had the opportunity to attend a Q&A Panel presented by the newly announced 2015-2016 Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Global Ambassador Team. This team includes the ambassadors from Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disney Resort, Hong Kong Disney Resort, Aulani, and the soon-to be opened Shanghai Disney Resort.

This is the 50th anniversary of the Ambassador program, an initiative created by Walt Disney himself, to select Cast Members that would represent Disneyland.

The panel was an incredible opportunity to meet and hear from these Cast Members, that would be traveling the world representing our company. It was awesome to hear about what is going on across the world, in our global parks industry. These Cast Members have the high honor of representing the Walt Disney Company over the next two years, and to be a small part of their training experience was amazing.

A great morning at the Global Ambassador Panel!

Exploring Guest Service

My Exploring Guest Service class was an 8 week seminar held on Wednesday mornings from 11:00-1:00! Here is a little recap of what we learned about each week!

Week 1: Introduction
We had an overview of our course and talked about the important of guest service to the entire Disney Company. We learned about guest service soft skills and how to incorporate them in our daily operations.

Week 2: Park Operations
We had managers from Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom that shared the tasks and challenges of incorporating guest service and maintaining operational excellence throughout the entire line of park operations, including Attractions, Main Entrance, Vacation Planning, Parking, Custodial, and many other operational fields.

Exploring Marketing

My Exploring Marketing class was an 8 week seminar held on Wednesday mornings from 8:30-10:30! Here is a little recap of what we learned about each week!

Week 1: Introduction
We had an overview of our course and discussed New Fantasyland, which would be the theme of the class. We would be seeing how the various marketing and sales teams worked together on the challenges of marketing such a huge expansion to the Magic Kingdom. 

Week 2: Strategy
We had guest speakers from this team that discussed the various strategy teams that encompass multiple divisions of the company, and how they effectively strategize their marketing tactics to reach guests.  

Career Development Workshops

One of the professional development opportunities provided by the Disney College Program's education team are the Career Development Workshops. These optional seminars are offered as a way to enhance your future career path. Knowing that The Disney Company is where I want to be, it was important to me that I take advantage of these special opportunities during my program.

I attended two workshops on the subjects of Resume Writing and Acing the Interview. They were led by one of my facilitators from my classes, who has an extensive background in Disney recruiting. Having someone teach these workshops that knows exactly what the company is looking for was extremely helpful.

I highly recommend attending these workshops to anyone doing the college program. It was a great way for me to fine-tune my resume and learn how to effectively add both my Disney and previous experiences in a way that will highlight my skills. The interviewing session was also very beneficial in learning how to stand out during an interview and make a lasting impression.

This program really is what you make of it. To me, it's more than just working here and going to the parks. Being given these opportunities to grow, both personally and professionally, is something for which I'm so grateful.

Animal Kingdom VP

Today, I had traded one of my Epcot shifts for a Vacation Planning shift at Disney's Animal Kingdom!! Animal Kingdom is the only park with a different costume for Vacation Planners than what I normally wear, so I went to their costuming location yesterday to pick it up!  

The Animal Kingdom Vacation Planner costume!