WDW College Program

Sometimes people are accomplishing many goals without feeling proud of themselves. For example, May 11th was my Disney College Program graduation, and until then, was when I realized how amazing was to receive a certificate from WDW. I was telling my friend Ambar that we should be more proud of ourselves because not everyone gets a certificate from a worldwide known company like WDW.

Throughout my experiences I have learned that everything in life has its price and its sacrifices. Being in the Walt Disney College Program has been a challenge for me because of the high standards that they have is incredible. And we as a cast member, we have to follow all the norms and rules that they have, but learning from this amazing company will help me to grow personally and professionally. Also, with the Walt Disney World experience many doors will open for me. Because they say that if you survive in WDW, then you can success in any where else.

So today I feel more proud of myself than ever. So far I have accomplish all my goals , even though I know there is lots more to come. 

I always remember that there is no impossible in life. People can accomplish anything that they one, all they need to do is work for it because nothing is given. I am a perfect example of that.

This week was very Special for me because it was my last week of class. Even though this semester has been really stressful for me, I did enjoy my classes and I learned a lot things from them. One of the things that I learned in Human Resources Management was, all the laws that protect us as an employee. I think it is really important to know these things because that way you know your rights in your work place.

Another reason why this week was really special, was because I was one of the few in my class who got an award for perfect attendance. When I received this award I felt very rewarded because my professor noticed all my effort and sacrifices. It is not easy to work forty hours a week and only have two days off and those days off you have to take that time to go to school without having any break for yourself. I remember each and every single day I had to get up on a Tuesday morning at 7:00 AM to be at school at 8:15 AM  after a long shift of work the day before. As I mentioned many times before being a Housekeeper is not easy, it is one of the hardest job that people can image. But I could not blame my job to be irresponsible with my classes. For this reason, I always made sure that I had a balance in both duties, since the beginning I knew that not matter what happened, I had to be responsible in both work and school. Like I said, it was not easy but I made it!.

This week, while at work, as I was on break I realized that it was almost time for me to leave. I couldn’t help but to feel sad knowing that I will be leaving my job location soon. I’ve met so many people and made new friends from so many different parts of the world. I also have gotten to used to my role as a front desk. I’ve become more efficient in my role and I am able to perform my tasks and take care of guests in a timely manner making sure they leave with a smile on their faces.

I love creating magical moments for guest and going out of my way to meet their expectations. I will miss the guest interaction. At first, I only focused on following procedures when checking in a guest. Now It has become essential for me to leave a positive impression on the guest not only as I proceed to take care of their needs but also make a connection that will remained for a long time in their memories since as front desk cashiers we represent the company. We are the face of the company. Therefore it is our responsibility to make lasting impressions on the guests. But at the same time I can’t help but to feel sad knowing that I will be leaving soon. But I will take everything that I’ve learned and all the meaningful memories that have been created and all the lasting friendships I’ve made.

This week I wanted to talk about school since it’s coming soon to an end. I’ve managed to get through with the classes and while it wasn’t easy, but we are almost done and it is safe to say that it was fun. We learned so many things from how the company operates, to how to get a head start on creating your own business plan. I met many people from different countries and it was amazing to see everybody contributing and making the class even more interesting. I loved how our professor always made sure to keep the class busy and entertained while demonstrating us how the business of hospitality works not only at Disney but in general as well.

I am very amazed at how we were able to handle work and school since we had such tough work schedules but sleep deprived, tired, and with different times scheduled to work, we still were able to work through it all and exceed in our goals. I’ve learned so much throughout this 4 months. I think I’ve come out of this much stronger and I also feel like I have grown as a person living this unforgettable experience.

This past weekend was better than I thought it’d be. My birthday was on Friday, May 6th. I was a bit sad not being able to celebrate with my friends back home. However, one of my best buds surprised me by coming down for my birthday. I was able to snag reservations at The Crystal Palace to celebrate with Pooh Bear and friends from the Hundred Acre Woods. It was a dinner buffet.

At the end of the meal, Pooh Bear and friends gave me a card and a cupcake to celebrate.

After the meal at The Crystal Palace, somehow my friend and I were led to the best spot to see Wishes. It was my friend’s first time at Magic Kingdom or at Disney World at all. It was a great experience he said and I was really happy to have been able to show it to him as well as experience with him. It was truly a magical night for me to have spent my birthday with one of my best buds at Disney World.

The last week of classes are always bittersweet. It was a great semester spent with an awesome professor Pamela Campbell. Our last classes consisted of projects due with presentations. For my Human Resources Management class, we had a final project about a multimillionaire company: NIKE INC.

For my Advance Hospitality class, we also had a presentation due. It was very similar to the show shark tank. We had a business and an investor request. The request for my group was the cupcake ATM machine. Luckily, we made some deals and someone bought it!

It was also cast appreciation day this past Tuesday. At the lunchroom in Disney Hollywood Studios, they offered Asian Pork Tacos for 99 cents. Of course they had an alternative for vegetarians like me. I had veggie tacos filled with a broccoli mix, still very delicious because broccoli is one of my favorite vegetables. With the tacos it would came with cilantro rice.

Another way Disney appreciated not only the cast members but the college programmers specifically. Disney opened Typhoon Lagoon this past Wednesday from 7pm till 1am. They were offering free T shirts, unlimited chips and Mickey Bars (of course I ate 4, for $4.50 each that was a steal!) and a buffet. However, the buffet didn’t offer much to me except, chips/salsa and bean chili, which was actually quite good with sour cream and cheese.

This week was a very exciting week due to the fact that it was a last week of my Disney classes. We have been preparing for this day all semester with all of the preparation for our final projects. In both my Advanced Hospitality and Human Resources class we had a group presentation that was based on the work we had been doing all semester.

In my Human Resources class we had to research a company and look our choice of Human Resource topics. Me and my group decided to do Nike. We had all planned accordingly to wear all Nike gear in which we had gotten the approval from our teacher for, since it is defiantly not business professional attire. This also gave me a reason to go shopping but that is besides the point. I discussed the topic of ethics and got into certain unethical circumstances that the Nike company has had to deal with over the years. I really enjoyed this project because it was very open and allowed us to choose what we wanted to do as a group. I was able to work with other City Tech student on this project and proud to say I think we nailed this one.

in my Advanced Hospitality class things got a little bit more interesting. As our final project we were asked to pitch an idea to “investors”, a.k.a an in class shark tank. As stated in my other journals in this class me and my group were in charge of a value resort and we were trying to get investors to help us start a cup cake ATM as seen in New York. My teacher along with her colleges and some volunteer students were the Sharks during each presentation. Let’s just say they did not go easy on us. This was a really entertaining and enjoyable experience because the pressure was on but it was exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time.

For most of my friend these are the final weeks of their program and because of this there has been a lot of college member activities. This week was Star Lit Swim, where they opened Typhoon Lagoon after hours just for college member. They had a DJ, food and most importantly free Mickey Bars. This was really an experience of a life time because usually that park is not open past 5 pm. All of the rides were open as well as the infamous wave pool that can drag you all the way back to shore. I really enjoyed spending time with friends who I either will never see again or at least not for a very long time. This was definitely an event I could not miss.

During this week, I worked a lot. Still during different time schedules. But now, I am more used to it. A few days ago I stopped and thought for a moment; I realized that I’ve been so into working and immersing myself in this new experience, that I didn’t even noticed this whole semester is going by pretty quickly. I’ve met a lot of people and I’ve learned so many thins about how a company operates and how difficult, stressful but most importantly rewarding it is to be to interact with people, or guests and how detailed you have to be when meeting their needs. I feel very happy to be able to put a smile on a guest’s face whenever a request is met. I discover that working in hotels is my passion and that now more than ever there’s not doubt that I chose the right career path.

I feel a little sad that the program is coming to an end. I wanted to stay longer and explore more Disney and learn more about the company and get more involved in their activities in order to expand my knowledge. For this reason I decided to apply for extension and remain in the program a few extra months. I will not be in the same role as a front desk cashier but it will still be a great opportunity to learn more, explore and experience a different role.

This week Florida has truly shown me how the weather can change ad dramatically as night and day. All week it has been extremely hot and humid. Most of my topic of conversation with customers is about the weather and how we are both getting through it. One of the customers asked me ” how do your stop yourself from jumping in this tub of ice?” *where we store our water bottles*. The sun was that amazingly strong that I pondered to myself why didn’t think of jumping in the tub of ice

On the last day of the week the sun was just as hot as ever. I had to refill my water bottle over 3 times to keep myself hydrated. The only difference from that day to any other is that I was not complaining about the sun by the end of it. About an hour before my cart was going to close I saw a big grey cloud making its way over Epcots World Show Case. The way that cloud was looking I knew we were in for a big one. Disney is very prepared for this kind of change in weather. For the employees we wait to hear from our leaders if we have to enter out lightening location to stay safe, if it is just raining we are equip with rain gear to keep us as dry as possible. The rain on this day though was like none other I have seen before.

My coworkers and I had just received the call about entering our lightening location. Lucky for us we did not have to mover anywhere because our cart was a lightening location. This wasn’t as lucky as we thought. While waiting for further information about what to do next we realized that the water level on the floor was was rising pretty quickly. After about ten minutes we realized this was more of a problem then we thought at first since the water was up top our ankles at this point. We called in our manager and was told to go to the kitchen back stage. When the managers went to go check on the flood in our kisoc they said the water had now reached up to their  upper calf. When hearing of the call they claimed they couldn’t really believe how much water had been piling itself up until they saw it for themselves. Usually the drains would take cake of the water but come to find out they were blocked with and excessive amount of leaves. This could be dangerous on so many levels but we were able to leave the scene earily enough enough before it became a bigger problem, got soaked in the process but at least we were all safe.