WDW College Program

This week has been a bit hectic with the projects being due and everything. For advanced hospitality class, we have a group project which requires us to make our very own website or a minimum of 25 page essay regarding our topic. The topics that were given were different for every group. My group was given value resort. For example, a value resort at Walt Disney World would be, Art of Animation, Pop Century, All Star Movies and All Star Sports. Our value resort was named Ohana and had a Hawaiian theme to it.

The line of business I ran was Housekeeping, I was the Executive Housekeeping Director. This project was a fun way to gain a little more knowledge into the hospitality industry in terms of building your own website and building a team. We had tasks where we would have to format an entire training session. The most fun I had doing this project was definitely writing my own biography. Our professor encouraged us that we didn’t have to be telling the truth since we were executives running the hotel, there was no way we were in our early to mid 20’s. I was able to write about the life I dreamed of, it was quite exciting. This included schools that I’ve wanted to attend and jobs I wished I was offered.

Now that this project is due, our next assignment is us becoming a secret shopper auditing a park. I’ve never been a secret shopper nor have I’ve ever gotten one. However, the best way to ace it is basically doing the right work every single time. That way no one can catch you slipping. The park my group picked was EPCOT, we had to go around different lines of business and ask them the same questions, after that answer the questions in the way we perceived it.

This week has been full of emotions and mixed feelings, during this time at work I have made a lot of great friendship. I understand that in today’s world networking is really important to move up professionally and personally. The reason why I’ve been having mixed feelings is because my time is almost over at Art Of Animation and I was already getting use to the people and the place, I cannot believe how fast the time went by. Today I realize that I only have three weeks left in my work location, I still remember my first day of work, at first I thought that these months seeing to be the longest because housekeeping is one of the hardest job people can imagine. Housekeeping requires a lot of physical work, I never thought I was going to be this strong to survive all this time. Although I am excited and happy that I’m about to get out of housekeeping, at the same time I feel that I will miss the environment and even the job itself. Besides meeting knew people in housekeeping I have learned a lot things that have made me stronger, now I feel that I can face or do anything after this. Because of this experience I met a whole new aspect of myself, being in such of hard department to work in I learned that with dedication and hard work anything is possible in life.

Overall, today I Understand that in order for a person to be prepared and more knowledgeable professionally and personally they need to start from the bottom, because of that way in the future when they become leaders in a company they will be able to make the right decision when it come to employees because they already went through that and know how it feels like to work in an entry level position.

Today I was making my last room when I stop for a second to observe my view that has been there for the past three mounts and because I’m always been really busy making sure all my rooms were done on time, I’ve never stopped to enjoy my view that has been around me all this time. I know I will miss this when I’m gone.

Here is a photo from my window!.

This week seemed to pass by quick, most of my week considered of moving to a new apartment and getting used to new roommates. However I gained a certain peace when I moved into my new place, like this apartment is my new chance to really enjoy my stay at Disney. When I walked in I was greeted by my first roommate, who had asked me if I had a lot of stuff to move and if I would of liked some help. This had been my first sign that my roommates would have been different and I would be more welcomed.

Since my roommates were able to help me move, I was able to move all my stuff in one day. My first night I collapse into my bed and rested soundly, a sense of happiness all around me. When I woke up I noticed something I didn’t have at my other apartment which was that I wasn’t alone. That morning I actually ate breakfast and went to enjoy the sun at the pool. As I relaxed I could feel the stress just leaving me and a new chapter at Disney opening.

Even work seemed to get better as this week we actually had three people on the shift and I realized I had gotten faster with scooping cupcake batter and piping cream puffs. This week I even was able to joke around with my coworkers as we worked. Being with only one other person was actually helping me to get faster with my skills and helping me to time manage and refine the work we had to do for the day.

When I came back to my apartment at the end of the week all I could think was, “I am home.”

Let’s see what happens next week on my journey at Disney.

This week has been horrible. I am always tired; I cannot seem to catch up to speed at work. I am wondering why did I come to Disney. I am having the worst time staying up in class since I am coming from work and have been up since the previous night and will rarely sleep before working the next day.

At work we have to stick to a time schedule and certain items have to be done by a certain time and it’s only me and one other person on the shift during most of this week. Which makes me feel worse because I feel like I cannot do everything that has to be done, and the other person with me has to pick up my slack. I am so frustrated and cannot seem to get my head straight.

At school, the professors understand that I come out of work before class and are understanding when they see me passed out. They will generally tap my chair or one of my classmates who I have gotten close to, will tap my foot and wake me up. I know I can get used to this schedule and I know I can balance everything I just need time to adjust to everything.

I am thankful for the friends who helped me and have talked to me about what I have been going through. I felt so stressed out, and physically weak, I have actually been feeling my hand going numb which is seriously scary. When I told my co-workers they replied wit, my wrist just are not used to the intense labor and showed me different methods to reduce labor on my hands and wrists. On my day off I needed a reset again, I needed a reason of why I came to Disney, and I needed to forget the stress. So I went to Animal Kingdom, went on rides, tried the food, and left early so I could sleep before my shift that night.

As for my apartment, turns out I was staying in Vista however I didn’t know the apartment number of where I would be moving to nor anything about my roommates, just that next week during my days off I had to move my stuff to a new apartment. I took a detour the next day after work to the front office to see where I would be moving to. Turns out that my apartment was down the street, closer to the buses, I would be living with less people which I was happy with because in my case living with five other people who didn’t seem to care that we failed out cleaning inspection, is not working out. Now the only thing I can do is hope that my next roommates are different.

Let’s see next week on what Disney holds for me.

This week could only be described only as a roller coaster. Working overnight takes a massive toll on your body; I didn’t realize how this schedule would affect me however I am excited because I am learning about time management. However I am still really slow and cannot seem to keep up with everyone just yet. My trainer has seen my frustration and she tells me that this shift can take a while to adjust too.

I was able to go to Epcot this week and see some of the characters. I was so excited; being in parks seems to wash away the stress I feel from work. Being in the parks is like a reset button, it makes me realize where I work. When I am working in the kitchen without being able to see the parks, it just seems like I am working in any other kitchen, instead of Disney. Epcot was amazing and I also learned that fast passes make everything go faster, it cancels out the anticipation of waiting to see the characters. The fast passes also help rid the feeling of anxiety when you are nervous about entering a ride you are nervous with going into, which helps when you are not used to going on rides.

I also was able to take a bus to the Asian Market which only happens twice a month. Being the Asian Market was like visiting Chinatown back in New York. There had been new food that I hadn’t seen before, which I ended up buying and making that night. My problem is how can I go back to ramen after trying new delicious noodles.

On a serious note, I just received an email, notifying me that I will be consolidated and must move into a new apartment or possibly another complex. I have no idea how I am going to move when I barely have time to do anything else besides sleep, work, and eat. Also who knows who I will be living with, the roommates I have are about themselves, I feel alone in this apartment. I hope this is not the case at wherever else I have to move to.

Let’s see when I will get my date to move out and where I will be moving to. See you next week!

This was a very big week academically, I had a midterm in my Human Resources Management class and a project due in my Advanced Hospitality class. Needless to say my week was completely booked. In both of these classes I have students from City Tech who take them with me and it has defiantly made the experience a lot better. Everyone else in the classes is very open and social when it comes to group discussions but it is always nice to have a familiar face.

My main concern this week was the big project due for my Hospitality class. The Midterm in Huaman Resource was about material that we have been covering for week so I felt a little but more secure that I would do well. For this project we had to create a website based on the randomly selected hospitality business that we were given many weeks in advance. Over the course of the class our professor would give us group activities that were to be put in the project so that we had the chance to ask questions if needed. This was a great opportunity to work in groups using real situations that can happen when running a business.

My group and I were in charge of a value resort hotel that we named ” Ohana”. This was a Hawaiian themed resort with various family oriented activities. We really tried to research specific foods and parts of their culture to really bring the theme to life. We all took different managerial positions with in the hotel, such as I was head of the Bar. This included taking charge of special events and maintaining inventory.

As a group I do feel like we did well with working together and coming up with idea that we can all agree on. Four out of the five members of my group were from City Tech so having people that I have worked with before in the past was just a plus. I am very happy to say that we all did our part in making this website and can’t wait to see what our professor’s opinion is.