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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Training for Hospitality

The good thing about training for hospitality is that it is LONG and you feel like a professional before you are even half way done!!!

Training involved:

* Traditions: everyone in every role has traditions. It is held at Disney University and it is 4 hours long and for my college program group it was held on Day 3. You must be in 'disney look" to be admitted into traditions and this is when you get your name tag and your company ID... (think: free park admission ticket!!!... and the card that your life will be based on for the next 3-7 months!!!)

* "Welcome Home": 4 hours. Training for saratoga and old key west (or your specific resorts) only. included DVC overview and tours of both resorts. We also got costumes on this day.

*"Disney Vacation Club" : basic overview of what the Disney Vacation Club is. 4 hours long held at Disney University.

* "1st impressions*: 7 days. 8 hours each day. Held at Disney University.... learned the computer systems and how to check in and check out guests. Also learned how to bank in and bank out... but each resort does it differently so that part was kind of pointless. Also got practice in "lab" on the "real fake front desk".

* "On the job training* : 7 days. 8 1/2 hours each day in costume at your work location. Included resort tours and one on one with a trainer behind your while you run the show!

Training concluded with a manager standing behind me and he watched me do a check-in, took notes and we discussed it afterwards!

Hospitality is one of the roles that has the most training but I'm grateful for that! There really isn't a lot of margin for error and you take in a LOT of money during a shift and the guests first real conversation with a cast member is probably going to be with you at the front desk so it is important that you know what you are doing and talking about !!!

After front desk training, I worked that for about a week and then got trained as a "runner". I had two days of on the job training for this role. One day at SSR and the other at OKW. A front desk runner's job can be quite fun, actually... you deliver stuff to rooms, I've picked up guests from the airport, gone grocery shopping, and done regular walmart shopping runs for guests... i've picked up VIP golden fastpasses at Hollywood Studios, gone to Cinderella's Royal Table at Magic Kingdom and brought guests to other Disney Resorts... and the list goes on! It's a lot of fun and makes the shifts FLY by because you get to drive around propert a lot! You also become very familiar with the resorts you work at and it helps you out a lot when you are working the front desk!!!