Questions to Ask at the End of an Interview

A question that I see come up time and time again is what questions to ask at the end of the interview. Many interviewers ask if you have any questions for them after they have finished going through their list of questions for you. This is the time to ask any lingering questions for them. However, if you need ideas of what to ask, here are some suggestions, some of which were compiled from a PI Facebook group and others that I have added myself. Some of these may be more applicable to a recruiter and others may be better suited for the department hiring manager, so use your best judgement for the audience of these questions.These aren't necessarily Disney internship specific and may be helpful when applying to full time positions with Disney or other companies.

Enjoy and good luck!


-What do you find to be the biggest challenges that interns face?
-What is the company culture like?
-If the person interviewing me has been an intern themselves - what was the most important thing you got out/learnt of being a [role title] intern?
- What have you gotten out of Disney that is different from other companies you have worked for? 
- Ask interviewers what their personal journey with a company has been

-What types of projects does the position work on?
-Describe a typical day in the role.
-What are the day-to-day tasks the position entails?
-If you could time travel back to when you were starting with the company, what would you tell yourself?
-What would you consider to be the most challenging part of the job?

-How will the PI experience differ from a CP?
-Where past interns have gone after their internship?
-What housing options are available?
-If you're an internal candidate, you can ask how the transfer works.
-What qualities have you seen in past interns that were successful in their role?

-What would you like to see in future interns who hold the position?
-Is there anything else you need to know about me that would help you make the hiring decision?
-What does the training for the position look like? 
-What characteristics are necessary to be successful in the position?
-What is the timeline to hear back for the position?

-What are the next steps in the interview process?
-What is the typical work/life balance? 
-What made them specifically choose that company? 
-What benefits do they think are most valuable?
-What's the best part of their job? 

-What is the best piece of advice you were given in regards to your career?
-If you ask what a typical day is like, maybe also ask them what an atypical day is like. 
-What is your favorite thing about working for the company and why?
-What networking opportunities are there for interns?

Updated Phone Screen Questions

Hello again!

One of the most popular posts on this blog has been Screening Interview Questions and Tips. I can't believe that I wrote that post 2 and a half years ago! How time flies!

While I don't do it as much as I used to, I still hang around the PI Facebook groups answering questions here and there. Therefore, since it has been so long, I have combed through the last few seasons of groups to put together another list of Phone Screen/Interview Questions. Many of these may be the same as my previous article, but I figured I would update the list to show what has been asked within the last year or so.

Focusing on the phone screen, you will mostly be asked about yourself, your career goals, and general questions about your experience. Listed below are some of the other potential questions that may be asked. Most phone screens last between 10 and 20 minutes, so you will likely only encounter a handful of the questions listed below.

While panel interview or interviews with the individual hiring manager may be more in depth, more internship interviews do not get too detailed. While you may encounter more role specific questions, many of the questions below are just as likely to come up in a second interview as in a phone screen.

Note: These were all taken from different Professional Internship Facebook groups and are all real questions that were asked applicants. 

General Questions
-Specific items listed on your resume
-Current work/school tasks
-Past experience
-Education background
-Talk about your struggles and accomplishments
-What positions have you most enjoyed and why?
-Describe one trait about yourself
-Do you have experience with professional email correspondence?

-Why do you want this role?
-What are your career goals?
-How will this internship help your future goals?
-What do you hope to get out of this internship?
-What are some of your hobbies?
-What you want the hiring managers to know about you?
-Which of your work experiences most aligns with the position?
-Why do you think you are the best candidate for the position?

Disney Specific Questions
-Why Disney? (this is a very common question!)
-Why do you want to come back to Disney (if you previously worked for the company)
-Are you a current cast member?
-What do you bring to our company?
-Do you have any tattoos and piercings? (they need to determine if you can follow Disney Look)
-Can you provide your own housing and transportation (there is limited company sponsored housing for non-MIs)
-What's your favorite Disney character?
-If you did a CP, what did you like and what didn't you like about your experience?


Situational
-Explain a time when you overcame a difficult situation
-Describe a time when I went above and beyond for a customer
-How do you deal with disagreements between co-workers?
-Tell about a time when you went above and beyond for a guest
-Describe a time you worked with a difficult/negative coworker

-Tell me about a difficult guest situation.
-Describe a time that you didn't agree with your leadership
-Tell a magical story and a not so magical one.
-Tell about a story that you turned a bad day into a good day
-How do you deal with conflict resolution with your peers, your superior and with guests?

-What has been your greatest mistake?
-Strength and weakness (may also be referred to as places you excelled or felt overwhelmed in a specific position)
-Talk about a challenge encountered in a project you have worked on
-How do you work on a team?
-Explain a situation where you made a mistake/received correction and how you reacted?

-Tell me about a time you had to lead a group during a team project.
-Tell me about your most encompassing project you have completed in school and what did it involve
-Tell me about a time you were positively recognized at school work/and a time you needed coaching
-What is your favorite/least favorite part of your current job?
-What is something that bothers you at work/in a coworker?

-Describe your communication style.
-Tell me three things about you that would be important for this role that we haven't discussed.
-How do you deal with working in a busy, fast-paced environment?
-How do you balance tasks when it’s busy?

-What is your main strength and what is your main weakness?

Leadership Questions (mostly for Management Internships)
-Previous leadership experience
-Management responsibilities
-How do you manage teams
-How do you motivate teams
-Qualities of a good leader
-Why are you interested in a leadership position?
-Why retail? (as a specific area for an MI)
-If I was interested in the 6 months or 12 months program or both
-How do you go about working with a different line of business
-What are the hardest/most enjoyable aspects of being a leader?
-What are some of the challenges of being a leader?
-How long have you had leadership experience? What does it involve?


VIP Tour Specific
-Why VIP Tours?
-What can you provide?
-Level Of safety
-Working with others/independently
-Any coachings or record card issues
-How a Disney professional internship with help your future

WDI Set Decoration:
- Ask for experience with props (i.e. design, handling, installation) and the importance of props and how that applies to the role
- Ask to explain familiarity and experience with hand tools
- Rate skill for Photoshop, Illustrator, and SketchUp
- Ask what you are most proud of in your portfolio and your role in that work

Other Role Questions
Events: What are your experience in events? 

      -Describe an event that you executed from start to finish
Technical roles: What programs are you familiar with and rate your proficiency (e.g. Illustrator, Excel, SAS, PhotoShop, programming experience, etc)

      -Walk me through your experience with Excel.



I know that this is an extensive list, but I didn't want to cut anything out as I know some people like to be as prepared as absolutely possible. I hope that lists like this and other information in my blog is still helpful and relevant to everyone out there applying for PIs that may come across this blog!

A Once in a Lifetime Business Trip

In August my team did a little bit of a re-org, which was both nerve wracking and exciting. In the re-org my responsibilities changed from working with the Disney Springs Region Resorts at Walt Disney World to our Hawaiian Resort: Aulani, a Disney Resort and Spa. I'm not going to lie, this has been the biggest challenge I've had yet in my career, but last week I got to experience the perks of working with the West Coast team....a trip to Disneyland and Hawaii!

It was my first trip to DLR, so while my bosses were flying in Sunday afternoon, I decided to get up bright and early to fly out early Saturday morning. Since I am going to grad school, the week leading up to the trip was spent with some late nights trying to get as much homework done as possible. I also of course waited until the night before to pack, so I can't say that I started the trip off with a lot of sleep. While I had issues with my luggage and a few rides breaking down, I spent almost the entire day at Disneyland and it was magical! I even got upgraded to a theme park view at Paradise Pier so I headed back to watch World of Color from my room! It was so nice to relax and listen to the show music with my TV.

Saturday I was able to do Extra Magic Hours at Disney's California Adventure starting at 7 am and then finished a few more rides at Disneyland before heading to my new room for a nap: at the Grand Californian concierge level! It was a much needed nap before meeting up with my freshman college roommate and conquering DCA! We also met up with my bosses for dinner which was nice. Karen and I closed out the park with another late night.

The team spent the next two days in meetings, including a late work night on Monday, but late nights are better with concierge snacks! Then my one leader and I continued onto Hawaii on Wednesday. Aulani is an amazing resort! It was seriously paradise and I recommend it to everyone who can get a chance to go! I didn't get to enjoy the amenities this time, spending a lot of my time in meetings and the evenings trying to finish my homework. Luckily I was able to submit everything so I could enjoy my extra vacation days! I booked a red-eye out on Monday, so I had 2 and a half days to pack as much island fun in as possible! Including relaxing, swimming with sea turtles, watching surfers on the North Shore, watching traditional hula, enjoying Hawaiian food, going on a movie tour, and visiting Pearl Harbor! My internal clock is all messed up now, but I slept most of Tuesday when I got home at noon until this morning since I only got a little nap in on my flight. 

My trip was full of a lot of hard and meaningful work, but I also played pretty hard, too. While I have a lot of work to do in the next week with my job and school, and I will miss the weather of Anaheim and the beauty of Oahu, it feels good to sleep in my own bed again after 4 hotels in 10 days.

It's amazing what a few years and some hard work can do!

Likelihood of Full Time

Time for another check-in! I know I am bad at blogging (I would say welcome to working full time and going to grad school, but I have gone through periods with 0 excuses). However, I am really good with following the intern Facebook pages and answering questions! I figured I may try to revive some blogging habits and do some posts on topics of frequent questions that I help answer in the groups, so here is my first topic!


Many people who apply for professional internships with Disney use it as a way to get their foot in the door to hopefully get a full time position. While many full time cast members in professional roles were once PIs, there is definitely not any guarantee of a full time offer during or after your internship. Because of this, a frequent question that people ask is the likelihood of going full time at after your PI. While I don't have any hard and fast numbers, I can tell you a bit of what I have learned from my experience of completing two PIs and staying with the company in a full time capacity. 

Work Ethic
Before you even think about full time, make the most of your PI. You aren't going to get anywhere with a full time offer if you cannot impress your leaders on your internship. Hiring managers will ask your leaders about you (they do it even for full time cast moving into new roles) so don't spend all your time worrying about the full time offer and not taking advantage of doing quality work and maybe learning a few skills to put on your resume. Recognize you may need to do 2 internships before getting anywhere, so build up the skills in your...

Area of Expertise
A big determination of how likely you can stay with Disney is what your background is in. For example, if you have experience in analytics, there are many teams around Disney that you may be qualified for and is an area that generally is growing. This means that you have more opportunity to stay, whether or not it is in the department that you interned in.  
On the other hand, if you are in Environmental Education, there is really one department you can work under. Thusly, by the nature of the team, you may not have a good chance of going straight to full time after the internship because their is a limited number of full time positions, so for this team you may need to go part time for a while (months or years) before getting a statused full time position. While going part time is an option for that area, not all areas have that option. Therefore, if the team you intern with is one of the only teams in your area, you may not have a good chance of staying with the company, because a lot depends on...

Timing
Timing is everything. If you are interning during an economic downturn, there may be a lot of cuts without many positions opening. This could also be conversely true with periods of growth as well. 
I always say that it is unlikely to stay with the team you intern with, because there has to be a lot of luck with the team either growing and gaining new headcount or someone leaving the team resulting with an opening. Not only that, you often have to hope that the position is going to be posted as an entry level position and the team enjoys your work enough to consider you. With those situations being few and far between, to take full advantage of your PI, you need to consider...

Networking
Networking is perhaps one of the biggest advantages of having a PI over applying externally. While I was awful at it (and really, REALLY lucked out to get a position without it), this is one of the biggest pieces of advice I give interns. Really use your time with the company to your advantage! It is such a big company with departments doing things you never knew Disney did, so take time to go and learn about them. The more you know about what you can do with your experience at Disney and the more people in those departments that may have openings during your time as an intern, thereby increasing your chances! If leaders can recognize your name in a stack of resumes, it can help increase the chance of getting interviews and potentially a full time position!

So when your on your PI, go talk to your leaders on how to approach networking, because who knows if you connect with a department or someone you network with and they end up having an opening on their team! Maybe I'll even do a post on how to network one of these days....

So to top it off, don't go in thinking everyone is going to love you and you will have a job offer in the first month (yes, there are some people that think this way), but if you work hard in your internship on your team, keep an eye out on my Disney Career for job postings, and do meet and greets, the timing of a great position and your skill set may align and give you that opportunity to stay with Disney post-PI! 

Resumes

Creating a resume is a daunting task albeit perhaps the most important one in getting a job. Yes, even potentially more important than your degree, hot shot internship, or cool research project you worked on, because how can your recruiter know about those things if you can't portray them correctly in your resume?

While I do not proclaim myself on being an all knowing expert on resumes, I weirdly used to enjoy making them when applying to internships and full time positions. I feel like while I may not be the best writer in the world, I am good about making connections to my experience to the jobs I am applying for. There are many great places for resume advice like your school's career center, a parent, mentor, or professor, but here is some of the advice that I have picked up through my years of applying to positions at Disney (and even after sitting on a hiring panel once as well!)

My first step in creating a resume is opening up word and start listing EVERYTHING that you can thing of that you may want to put on a resume. Schools, jobs, volunteering, languages, conferences attended, major projects you have worked on (even if they were just in school), awards, scholarships, anything and everything you can think of: list it all out! I recommend this since listing everything out can really help you see all you have to offer and can actually help you focus more on the important things to include rather than trying to figure out what is most important to include off of the top of your head. Also, make sure to list all responsibilities that you had in roles or projects including software/machinery used (or whatever may be applicable in your subject area). This document could be 2 to 10+ pages long depending on your experience. Remember this is a starting point and not what you are submitting!

Then start looking at what positions you are interested and try and figure out what is most applicable to include on your actual resume. I recommend tailoring your resume to every position you apply for, so this is why the previous step is helpful: you don't need to start over every time you are applying to a new position. You have a starting place to plug and chug and modify as necessary to have a nicely polished, focused resume. 

Now while making your resume here are some tips:

- Don't try and cram everything on one page if you honestly have more relevant experience. It can begin to look sloppy and hard to read if you have too much there 

-Nowadays it is very acceptable to have a 2 page resume, but don't go over 2 pages unless they ask for a CV. Life has changed from when our parents and grandparents applied for their first jobs and the 1 page rule is becoming much more of a thing of the past

-If you do go over 1 page make sure you can fill 2. Doing 1.5 pages looks sloppy and most recruiters don't like it

-Try not to have more than 3 bullet points under a position. People are trying to get a quick grasp of what you did in that job that gives you the experiences to get the position you are applying for and listing too much is hard to look at quickly. Disney gets a lot of applicants and recruiters don't have time to read a novel no matter how cool the job was

-Look at the job description and qualifications and try and figure out what makes you qualified. Try and match similar keywords and connect your experience to the position

-Don't include positions that have nothing to do with what you are applying for if you are just trying to fill space and can't adequately tie it to something related to the position 

-Split your resume into 4 parts by making lines down the center of each direction of the page. Try to have even white space in each part as it makes it easier to read and is more visually appealing 

-Don't include a mission or objective. It is outdated and isn't worth wasting the space to just say you want xxx job at yyy company. This is another outdated practice and literally everyone who has ever given me resume advice says not to include it. You have limited space to prove yourself so don't waste it with something obvious. If you have sometime you want to say that can't fit in your resume, write a cover letter instead!

-Make sure to include key words from the job description. I cannot repeat this enough. Many companies, especially Disney, get a crazy number of applicants for each job positing. Therefore, resumes are often scanned by computers before people look at them so you need to make sure the computer thinks your a good candidate before you can even hope to convince a hiring manager or recruiter. On the flip side, don't just copy and paste entire phrases from the description as that is (obviously) plagiarism

-Look up resume action words and include them in your descriptions. Also, If you have a way to quantify parts of your projects, do it! Saying you were a biology tutor makes far less of an impact then saying that you created problem sets for 4 student peers a semester and anticipated difficult subject material for weekly sessions to aid in raising students' grades an average of an entire letter grade in an introductory biology course

-List your sections of your resume from most important to least important (but remember only important things should be making your resume in the first place). Many people will take a couple of seconds on their initial scan to see if a resume is cleanly put together and if there is something about this candidate that will make them want to read more of the resume. So don't include your most important skills and experiences at the bottom of your second page.

-Give your resume to friends, family, or anyone you trust to give constructive feedback. Other people might notice mistakes you missed or even remember something useful that you may want to add before submitting the final product

-Save your resume as a PDF before submitting it. This will ensure that formatting won't change depending on who is looking at it (don't worry, the computer scanners don't have issues with PDFs)

I had two pages when I was applying for jobs as I had a diverse background and wanted to include both relevant experience and project work without cramming too much in a short space (which I know is ironic given how lengthy my blog posts tend to be 😃)  The important thing to remember is to sell yourself in a clean presentable format. This may mean different things to you or what field you are in, but resumes are perhaps the biggest impact on getting to that pone interview where you can sell yourself even further!

If you made it through this, congrats, you are on your path to start creating a stellar resume!

Update to Intern Park Passes

One of the greatest perks of being an intern with Disney is the free park admission. Can you imagine being able to enjoy the magic whenever you want!?!?! Even after two years with the Company I have to say it doesn't get old. While, I might not go quite as often as I did during my first internship because I wanted to make the most of my unknown amount of time here, I still go quite often. I love being able to just go for a few hours in the evening after the sun goes down in the summer, grab a bit to eat during Food and Wine at EPCOT, enjoy all of the holiday festivities, and more whenever I want. 

As a cast member, you even get to bring guests in to enjoy with you! While I am very fortunate to be statused in a full time position now so my guest passes work differently, interns (College or Professional ones) still get the same unlimited self admission and get some guest passes as well. I made a post last year about the old way that intern guest passes used to work (Old Intern Park Pass Post) but at the beginning of this calendar year Disney shook up the way intern passes work so I figured it was worth doing an update for those who might be itching to know what to expect.

The self admission main entrance pass still works the same, but instead of getting 3x 6 use passes at the beginning of your internship, interns and seasonal cast members now accrue their guest passes based on hours worked.

Need to actually type how the new passes work. I believe that once you have worked 150 hours you will receive three 1 person park hopper tickets. These could all be used on the same day or different days, it's up to you! Then after you work another 150 hours you get three more 1 person park hoppers. Finally you will recieve 3 more after the 450th hour worked. I believe at that point you will stop accruing so during your internship you will likely get nine 1 person park hoppers. 

If you were to let in the max of 3 people each time you used the old version then technically you got more under the old way (max 18 across 6 days) and could do so from the day you got your main enterence pass was nice. However, the felxibility of when you can use the new passes is nice too! Why did this change happen? Perhaps Disney was trying to avoid people starting a CP/PI using the perks and then quitting and/or trading away shifts as a CP but maintaining their own entrance to the parks. Who knows the exact reason this changed but I haven't heard many complaints about the new system besides when it was first announced, so I assume it has been going well. But let's be honest: who can complain about getting in free to Disney and having the opportunity to intern at such a great company!!!!

Spring 2017 Professional Internship Applications

So I've been behind on this semester, but we are in yet another round of Disney Professional Internship applications. Many of the applications have closed, but there are still some out there for those interested in applying and I bet they'll be additional ones posted here and there. I've been following along on the Facebook pages and this year does seem to be working a bit differently than in the past. I'm not going to pretend to know how the process works, but I will let you know some of my observations from this time around.

1. Phone Screenings: In the past you generally only had one phone screening that counted for all of your applications. Occasionally, someone would get called up to ask a few separate questions, but for the most part you generally only had one screening whether it be for PIs in different departments or for Management Internships as well. This time around people are reporting getting more specific phone screenings and one for different positions. I remember for my second PI I applied to a wide variety of positions, including analytical ones, animal ones, and MIs and had one phone screening that I was told would be used by all.

2. Animal Programs: In the past Animal Programs PIs skipped the phone screen completely (so if you only applied to these positions you never had a phone screen) and move straight to the Animal Programs team who requested the applicant fill out a questionnaire. This year it looks like Animal Programs is acting more like other PIs in having phone screens and skipping the questionnaire. There is still the familiar outreach from the hiring team, but instead of a questionnaire it just wants to ensure people are still interested in being considered. Then people are getting the typical leader interviews for the positions. The questionnaire/phone screen swap is an interesting change, but perhaps will make it more streamlined.

3. Timeline: Overall it looks like they are changing it up to perhaps get the timeline moving faster than the past. Then again every semester everyone thinks it is going faster than previous years, and it normally works out to be the same time (or in some cases later) to hear back for positions. This year does seem to have more of a drastic shift in how the process is running, but people have been told to hear back as early as the first week of October to early December (some of these people being in the same department!). I guess only time will tell how the changes earlier in the process will influence things down the line.

As always, the current semester's Facebook page is one of the best sources of information and to unite with other applicants going through the process. Disney Professional Internship | Spring 2017

If you applied for this round, good luck and if you have any questions always feel free to comment on a post or reach out to the Facebook group as the people on the pages are great resources.

Fall has arrived in Orlando!

Well maybe Florida hasn't gotten the fall temperature memo, but fall events are in full swing at the Orlando theme parks. 

Night of Joy (Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports)

The first weekend after labor day marks both Disney and Universal's Christian music festivals. This year they both took place on Friday 9th/Saturday 10th. This was the first year Disney moved the music festival to ESPN Wide World of Sports. I didn't attend but there was a good line-up this year and I might go next year.

Rock the Universe (Universal Studios Florida)

Because I have a special Universal pass I was able to attend this year's event for free. It was the same dates as Disney's Night of Joy. I really wanted to attend Friday nights line-up but hadn't been feeling well, but my roommates and I decided to go for a little bit on Saturday. It was definitely crowded, but it wasn't as hectic as I thought it would be. I enjoyed the end of Family Force 5's concert and all of TobyMac's concert. It was fun, but I don't think my roommates were prepared for the type of music they heard. It was fun and I might go again next year if there are some bands that I like, but I would probably never go if I had to pay for it. 

Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party (Disney's Magic Kingdom)

This hard ticket event runs for a bunch of nights in Septmeber and October. This year the parties started on Sept 2nd. I went two years ago and had tons of fun! Costumes, trick-or-treating, rare character meet and greats, an awesome parade and fireworks so and so much more! What more can you ask for? I have my ticket purchased for this Tuesday with some explorer buddies that will be in town to visit. I'm so excited to see them and see the Hocus Pocus show!

Epcot International Food and Wine Festival (Disney's Epcot)

This year Food and Wine is longer than ever! It started Wednesday Sept 14th. I went for my first of many visits Friday night. It stormed for a while causing the booths to be closed down, but I still had a good walk around the world showcase to see the great offerings this year. I started off with the Brazilian cheese bread an the Apple Pie drink from Poland which were some favorites from last year. The books this year have stickers instead of having to find who has the stamps for each country and I can't want to taste my way around the world for my third year!

Halloween Horror Nights (Universal Studios Florida)

Now for the very scary HHN! This year's event started yesterday (Friday), but my roommate is a team member and so I was lucky enough to attend the team member preview on Wednesday. We even had express passes so we were able to go to every house! I think I'll have to go back a few more times to make any final conclusions, but last year was pretty awesome, so I think it will be hard to top! Here's to another month and a half of getting scared!

Some of the other Central Parks have fun fall events coming up (SeaWorld's Halloween Spooktacular and Busch Garden's Howl-O-Scream) that haven't started yet, but I have annual passes to both so I am definitely go to try and go check them out later this year. However, I think with Horror Nights and Food and Wine starting this past week, we can say that fall is back and as good as ever!

Celebrating our 240th Independence

4th of July is one of my favorite holidays of the year and of course is especially made better with a 3 day weekend! After a week of not sleeping very well I enjoyed some extra time of relaxation, but also had a great time celebrating in the parks!

Saturday 2nd

My roommate rented a room at the Hard Rock Hotel so we had a ball at Universal! I'd been inside to go to the Velvet lounge during Mardi Gras (Thank you Mardi Gras Universal app for free drinks! What what?!?!) The rooms were even more amazing and we could even see CityWalk and the parks from our room! We had planned to spend the afternoon at the pool but when we first checked in it was pouring rain so we headed to CityWalk to go to one of the best places ever: Red Oven Pizza! It is seriously soooo good. Instead of heading back to the pool we decided to just hang out at the parks. We saw so of the cars cycling at the Hulk so hopefully it means that it will be back up and smoother than ever! I even got to watch part of the 100 years of movies nighttime show that I've never seen before. I'll definitely have to go back and see the whole thing. Before heading in for a relatively early night in we headed back to CityWalk to grab a bite to eat at Hot Dog Hall of Fame (where I of course got the Detroit option!)

Sunday 3rd 

We had such a great night sleep. Those beds at Hard Rock are COMFY! Today is the day that the holiday celebrations really began. Disney knows how to do fireworks so of course they do special ones for the holiday where they come hand and hand at both EPCOT and MK. This might seem to be a torn decision on what to attend, but luckily Magic Kingdom perimeter ones are on the 3rd and 4th, so I of course wanted to get the best of both worlds. My roommates and I met up with my roommate Sam's friends from out of town right before the fireworks at Magic Kingdom, which were amazing. I do have to say the best spot to see them is in the Hub. Afterwards we decided to go show our visitors Animal Kingdom at night. We were only there for about an hour, but we got a ton done including dinosaur twice, Everest, and a great safari where we saw the Hyenas!!!! I was pretty much jumping up and down because I've been waiting forever to see them! After a great night, Sam and her friends went back to MK for extra magic hours until 3am, but Corey, Scott, and I headed over to the new Applebees for some half price apps.

Monday 4th

Finally was the actual holiday! I celebrated by the all american decisions to go to Starbucks for their frappuccino deal and Five Guys for a great American cheeseburger. Then Corey, Scott, and I met up with Sam and her friends again for an evening of fun at EPCOT. We were lucky enough to be able to go on Test Track and the new Soarin', which I do think it is an improvement over the old one. Then we made our way around the world showcase before playing some Heads Up waiting for the fireworks. 

Overall, while we definitely know that summer has hit us with some crazy heat and humidity, it was a fantastic weekend with a good balance of relaxation, friends, parks, and celebrations. I have to say if you are ever in town for the Independence Day fireworks they are totally worth the crowds to watch! Like I said, Disney knows how to do fireworks. :) After such a great weekend, it was definitely hard to get up to go to work on Tuesday! lol

Find Your Park: National Park Service Centennial

This year is the centennial of the US National Park Service! If you've ever been to any of the parks you know how amazing they are! If you haven't gone to one yet or just need to get your nature fix in head over to the National Parks website at Find Your Park and head to one soon! 

To celebrate there was a special Ranger Mickey topiary at this years Flower and Garden Festival. I LOVED it!!! It reminded me of my Wilderness Explorer days and made me so happy to get the exposure of our beautiful parks to all of the Disney goers out there. On the weekends there was even a small booth nearby that was maned be people from the NPS and there occasionally was a ranger dressed in their uniform nearby! They were hoping to connect people to a park that may be near them and hand out goodies like temporary tattoos, stickers and sunglasses. I chose the elk tattoo since the Rockies are some of my favorite parks and even got a sticker to display at my desk!

Temporary tattoo from National Park Service
Booth at Flower and Garden

Roommates and I in front of Ranger Mickey
celebrating National Park Service Centennial

When my family came to visit in May we were even able to find my first park in Florida. I know, I know. It's a shame that I have been here two years and still haven't made it to the Everglades, but I hope to cross that off later this year. One of the days my parents were here we decided to venture over to St. Augustine. I hope to do another post on our overall experience there, but the great thing is that we were able to head over to the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. It was SOOOO cool. I can't say it is anything like Yellowstone (but that is a National Park and not a monument) but it was so cool to visit a Fort that had so much history. 

The monument was originally a fort built by the Spanish and is the oldest masonary fort in the continental United States. The fort walls were beautiful as they are made with a unique rock called Coquina, which is largely made of little shells. It was crazy being in the rooms and seeing the walls with thousands upon thousands of shells! The fort sits on a beautiful site on the bay and gave amazing views. At first the fort didn't look like much from the outside, but inside I learned a ton about the history of St. Augustine and even was able to see a cannon firing demonstration! The day we visited was extremely hot, so we picked up some water from the gift shop and they even had a water bottle refill station inside that reminded me of my days at the Detroit Zoo.

Overall it was a really great experience and I totally recommend it if you are in town. I even picked up a new limited edition Park Passport. I totally recommend getting these. I have a little one from when I was growing up and it is so much fun to get all the stamps from where you visit. My old one was getting full so I talked myself into buying a new bigger one for the Centennial. It even has nice descriptions and maps of all the Parks, Lakeshores, Preserves, Monuments, etc all over the US so you can #FindYourPark!

Find Your Park and National Park Service Centennial pictures are from www.NPS.gov

Earth Month is Every Month

Okay, I think everyone should treat every month like Earth Month, but in reality the world officially celebrates it in April. One of my favorite things about Disney is the Company's commitment to the environment. We even have a word for it: Environmentality, which basically means to keep a commitment to act with the environment in mind. This is something that I always cared about a bit, but now live even more intentionally mostly due to my time being a Conservation Education Presenter at Animal Kingdom. 

Now, I could make countless posts about ways to live intentionally using Environmentality in everything you do so I won't go into too much detail in this post. Additionally, the longer I have worked for Disney I still continue to be amazed by the efforts that I am continually learning about. With a resort as large as Walt Disney World we sure do produce a lot of waste, but the Company has teams of people that work to find ways to divert that waste from landfills, wether it is your basic recycling, making dog toys out of old costumes, participating in Clean the World, composting, and the list goes on! 

Wearing my Environmentality button from
Old Key West's Earth Day event showing off the
homemade jam I bought at the Team Disney
farmers market

For Earth month there were a lot of activities around property including local Earth Day events at the various parks, resorts, and office buildings, voluntearing with nature preserves or recycling efforts, and even seminars and webinars as well! 

Spending 7 months teaching thousands of guests about conservation, it is still something I am very passionate about. So I attended a couple of Earth day events, including one at Old Key West, one of the resorts I work with, bought local goods from a farmers market set up at team Disney (I even won a raffle!), and I was even honored to be invited out to Saratoga (another of my resort partners) to help with a Purple Martin nest check. These birds are a migratory bird that is threatened of lack of nesting space so people around the country use these birdhouses and gourds to give them a place to nest. Disney has a bunch of them on property and we check and band the birds so we can see how the populations are doing, band for future observation, and make sure parasitic birds-birds that lay eggs in other birds nests- don't take over the nests.This was such a cool opportunity and I felt honored to have been asked to participate. I even got to hold a baby bird, even if it did poop all over my hand! 

Baby purple martins!

To show off my Environmentality every day, I have added elements to my desk at work! I collect the Disney Conservation Fund buttons. These are fun to collect and the money donated goes to a great cause! I also was lucky to buy up a few old Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund signs to add to my wall to show off some of the amazing work that we contribute towards. Lastly, one of my favorites is a picture of some vultures at Animal Kingdom Lodge signed by members of the keeper team thanking me for helping out with enrichment training on World Vulture Day last fall! I'm continually adding and love having these reminders with me every day and enjoy the conservation starter they can be to people that stop by.

Now get out there, keep environmentality in the back of your mind, and learn more of the small things you can do to celebrate Earth Day every day!

Some old Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund (DWCF) posters that I bought

My treasured vulture picture

My pin collection which I am very proud of!

Ilvermorny House!

While I work for Disney, I have LOVVVVVED Harry Potter since I received the first book as a birthday present when I was about 7. My dad would read them to me at first, but by the time the 6th book came out I read it in a fury the day it released so nothing would be spoiled. I have long claimed Ravenclaw as my house and even sport a Ravenclaw case on my iPhone.

What's awesome about this world that JK Rowling created is that it still resonates with so many people and it is continuing to be expanded on. One of the exciting parts of the new Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie is that she has begun to flesh out the wizarding world in America. While I have to be honest and wasn't the biggest fan of what was released a few months ago about magic in the US, I have to say that with the new information about the American schools for witches and wizards, Ilvermorny, and it's founding has at least partially restored my faith and excitement. The history of the founders and how the sorting ceremony differs was so exciting and was something that I connected much more with than the seemingly poor research on Native American history aspect that had previously been released. There is even a new sorting ceremony on Pottermore for the school, so naturally I had to take it to find out what house I would be in. The result is...

Thunderbird!!!

As Pottermore states, "Named by Chadwick Boot after his favourite magical beast, the Thunderbird, a beast that can create storms as it flies. Thunderbird house is sometimes considered to represent the soul of a witch or wizard. It is also said that Thunderbird favours adventures."

I have to say at first I wanted to be sorted into this house because it had the coolest sounding name, but once I read the history of the houses I felt a little torn that as a Ravenclaw I should have gotten the Horned Serpent. However, the more I think about it, I think that Thunderbird does represent me well. I do love knowledge, but I am not one to sit upon that knowledge. I love exploring to see what else I can learn and experience, but I can also leave a bit of a storm in my wake as I sometimes get defensive or argumentative when I don't think that people are acting rationally or challenge my intelligence. I also really value the intentions of individuals and I often feel guilty myself if I don't do things for the right reasons so I think the soul aspect fits since a person down to their core is important. Plus I am so interested in why people do the things they do and what life experiences have shaped them to where they are or if the way a person acts is because of their base deep down. Therefore, I think in someways with the limited information out there about the American houses, I think that in some ways Thunderbird might fit me even more than Ravenclaw does (but I guess that partially happens when an author leaves a lot up to their readers imagination to fill in ;) )

Now if you are even just a casual Harry Potter fan I would say to get over to Pottermore and read the new info on the founding of Hogwart's American counterpart, Ilvermorny, and get yourself sorted!

Florida Food Bucket List

A while back someone linked a Florida bucket list from a website called onlyinyourstate.com . I started checking out the site and as the name might point out, it has a lot of articles of cool things for every state! I saw a couple of food based articles and decided to combine the lists to one that includes places that I would be most likely to go (basically ones in Central Florida from Tampa to Port Canaveral). 

I've already tried two of these!
-4 Rivers-basically amazing!!! The one I go to is in Winter Garden and has my mouth watering as I type. Definitely recommend!

-Pub Sub at Publix- Only actually tried this this week. I tried a chicken fingers sub (I was told this is what I should get) and I wasn't overly impressed by all of the hype. I mean, it is a decent sub for a decent price so I am not opposed to getting one again, but I am not rushing back either.

nom nom nom. 4 Rivers!!!

Two more were on a list from some friends.
-Keke's Breakfast Cafe- My roommates swear by this place. We were going to go once together but the wait was long and Sam had to work that day so we passed. I will get there one day...

-Old Spanish Sugar Mill De Leon Springs- This one's been on an imaginary list since my first PI. If you weren't already aware, Manatees come and winter in the wonderful springs of Florida. Some friends told us about how they went at saw the manatees and got to make delicious pancakes from their table! My roommate and I tried to find our way here, but ended up at a different springs. We may not have gotten to have pancakes, but we did get to see a lot of manatees! Next winter for sure.

A couple more I recognized the name of.

-Yellow Dog Eats in Gotha- Some people at work have mentioned this place before. I can't remember any specifics, but when I came across the name I made a mental note
-Frenchy's in Clearwater-When I saw this name I remembered passing it when I went to Clearwater with Nick 2 years ago. We almost went here but went for a delicious pizza place instead. Supposedly the Group Sandwich is the thing to get here!

-Columbia Restaurant (Ybor, Clearwater, Orlando)- This one I recognize from my trip with my family to St. Augustine 2 weeks ago. We almost went to a Columbia Restaurant there (and we actually parked at it!) but went for a more local, hole-in-the-wall, authentic Cuban (and also cheaper) restaurant down the street. I'm glad we tried that one there since Columbia has a few in my neck of the woods

And then there were some that I hadn't ever heard of (which really means nothing since there is still so much in Florida I have yet to explore). Maybe I'll try and visit a handful of these in the future!
-The Beach Shanty Cafe in Clearwater
-Three Coins Diner in Tampa
-Aguila Sandwich shop in Tampa
-Wright's Gourment House in Tampa
-Brocato's in Tampa
-Pinky's Tampa
-Mediterranean Deli in Orlando
-Teak Neighborhood Grill in Orlando

Hopefully I can make it to a some of these places in the future, but I bet I'll come across a ton of other places to eat as well

Resident Summer

So in April I was lucky enough to volunteer in a Cross-Utilization capacity to be a Disney Media Representative for the National Media Awaken Summer Event (you can read a little here:  Awaken Summer).

Well, the media outlook that I worked with (105.1 WOMX Orlando's Mix) apparently didn't get completely sick of me during our Disney's Animal Kingdom at Night Preview and Disney's Animal Kingdom Broadcast the follow day. I apparently was tolerable enough for them to ask for me to work with them again for out Florida only media event for Resident Summer! I was so honored to be asked to hang out with them again (oh wait, I guess it was considered work).

This time both their morning and afternoon shows came out and it was so much fun to meet them all. They were all great people and I was happy to be able to help introduce them all to the new Town Center at Disney Springs (let's just say that I am addicted to D-Luxe Burger now...)  and all of the great new offerings this summer, including the new Soarin' Around the World video and Frozen attractions at EPCOT, Star Wars fireworks at Hollywood Studios, Jungle Book show with the new Animal Kingdom at Night, along with the new stage show at the Magic Kingdom. Some of these thing are already open, but there are a ton of things opening today, June 17th!

If I didn't have enough fun working the event,
they even gave me this yummy treat!

If you search #ResidentSummer on your favorite social media device you can probably find a lot of the things that the media posted from the event! 

I hope that I can work some of these events again in the future. I love my job in Revenue Management, but the opportunities like this to get out in the parks and interact with our guests, media ones or otherwise, really helps keep the magic alive!

Media partners CJ and Carly with Mix 105.1, Marketing Manager
Jane, and myself after another successful broadcast!

...and a new era with Fall 2016 interns!

Today was the first day at Team Disney for the Fall 2016 interns. This is my second round of new interns since starting at Team Disney. It's so funny because on the first day it is sooooo easy to tell the interns apart from everyone else. 

First off, they are all dressed really nice. Now, this isn't to say that everyone else dresses like a bum. However, the beautiful thing about working in a non-guest facing role is the Disney Casual Look. So in reality most people are in jeans and a not-too-casual top. However, all the interns are dressed super business-y the first day (and generally pretty nice for the following week or so). Now don't think I am too judg-y, because I TOTALLY did the same thing during my second PI at Maingate and during the first week or so of my full time position at Team Disney. I think it is definitely the way to go when starting a new position. You don't want to underestimate what your area wears and not get off on the best foot possible.

I literally just want to go up to all of them and introduce myself, but I don't want a reputation of being some creepy, over-eager person. I also keep reminding myself that the number of people you meet in the first week or so is so overwhelming. I figure I'll let them know the people they actually need to know first and then maybe I'll introduce myself.

I only saw the F&B interns for a tiny bit today when I saw them going on a tour and sitting in their cube at the very end of the day. I think they were in a conference room for the rest of the day. I think I want to give myself a goal with each set of interns. Last set of interns I wanted to try and introduce myself and become friendly with the F&B interns since they sit right outside my desk. I think this round of interns I want to get to know these new F&B interns AND make myself try and get to know at least one other set of interns. Right now I am thinking I will stay on my floor which means the largely MSI cube or Decision Science cube. Honestly, many people in decision science intimidate me. Many of them, including at least some of the interns, have PhDs. They are all just SUPER smart and I feel very inadequate around them. So I think I will lean towards the MSI cube. I will still probably try and get closer to the F&B interns since there is less than half the amount of MSI or Decision Science interns so it will be less pressure to just stop by and I literally pass by them a dozen times a day.

If you are an intern just starting, I hope that wherever you are working your first few days are going fantastic and that you are enjoying the magic!

End of Another Intern Era

Now that I am full time it is really weird to see interns come and go. 

I have to preface that my team doesn't have interns, but many of the teams we work with have them and the teams that sit around us have them as well. In Team Disney (at least on my floor), off the main walkway there are 4 intern cubes. These are megacubes. On our floor each person has their own cube (except the hourly DVC Stat Associates), but the interns have ones that are 3-6 time bigger than a normal persons cube, but that's because a bunch of interns share it. Like I said, my team doesn't have any interns, but I pass the food and beverage pricing and revenue management intern cube every time I walk in from the elevators or have to go to the bathroom. So pretty often. Therefore these interns are the ones that I see and interact with most often. In the office I even refer to them as "the interns" when they aren't even on our team. 

When I started in my current role the Fall 2015 interns were already 2 months into their internship. They were all settled and I never really interacted with them much. Partially, becasue I was so overwhelmed by all of the other people I needed to get to know, and a little because they weren't the most sociable bunch. One just wandered the halls 90% of the time with his headphones on or sat at the intern cube with his feet up on the desk watching videos on his iPhone. To say the least, my team wasn't his biggest fan. The second wasn't awful. I think he was just shy or socially awkward. He was say hi, but would look away and kind of avoided conversation all of the time. 

The third was the only one I semi-conversed with on any sort of regular basis. He was by far the nicest of the bunch. He is also the only one still left with the company. After his PI in F&B pricing ended, we accepted another PI doing something with Disney Cruise Line in Celebration. But a couple of months ago I started seeing him around Team Disney again. Every time I saw him I was either rushing to a meeting or he was in the midst of conversation so when I finally got a chance to talk to him I found out he had received a full time position in Planning! I was so happy that of the 3 of the Fall 2015 interns that he was the one to stay with the company. I still don't see him much but it's nice having another friendly face in Team Disney.


Last week the Spring 2016 interns finished up their PIs. I was really, really sad to see them go. I made an effort off of the bat to introduce myself to them and would try to periodically stop in and chat. Admittedly I didn't talk to them AS much as I wanted to, but it is amazing how time flies! I loved this group. The 3 of the F&B interns were so nice, actually had personalities, and really seemed to actually want to be there. I think a combination of these things really helped them out, because all of them are staying full time with the company?!?!? It's crazy in that they all found out in the last two weeks. The one pricing intern found out on a Friday that she was going to be staying on the F&B pricing team full time. The second found out on the following Tuesday after memorial day that she was being offered a Finance position. Last Friday was a little awkward because the F&B Revenue Management intern didn't have an offer or any plans after the internship. The others in his cube were all staying and the pricing interns had had so much excitement in the last week when they found out. However...he just had to wait another week and he was offered a position as a Merchandise Business Insights Analyst. It's kind of exciting that he will be going to my old home at Maingate and gives me another reason to go back and visit!!!

There was also 4th intern who joined their cube from another area that needed space a couple of months into the internship, but since she hasn't been in this cube as long I don't know her as well. She just extended into another PI so I guess more time to get to know her!

It really is amazing how quickly the last 10 months as a full timer has gone. It is also going to be crazy for all of the new Fall 2016 interns to join Team Disney on Monday. I am excited to see all of the nervous, excited faces all dressed formally in business clothes getting their building tours on Monday. With such a great group to live up to, I am exciting no meeting the new group of faces that I will walk by a dozen times everyday for the next 6 months. I hope they are another fun group joining the Disney family. And who knows, if they are as good as the last set of interns, perhaps they will be around for a long time to come :)