Training to be a Vacation Planner at Disneyland

The training to be a Vacation Planner is pretty intense. I just graduated from college, so I’m used to having a lot of information thrown at me at once and studying on my own, but this training was still overwhelming for me. They kept telling us that if you can remember 25% of the information they were teaching, we’d be fine, which turned out to be completely true. But it was still overwhelming for the first couple weeks!

Here is an overview of my training experience. Future Vacation Planner trainees- the content of each day will probably look different depending on how your trainer does things, but the general schedule will be about the same.

Day 1: Selling Relationship Magic

On the first day, I was grouped with other vacation planner trainees for a class called Selling Relationship Magic. At the beginning of this day, I met our two trainers and the rest of the other trainees, and we went straight to get our costumes from costuming. We were given a tour of the backstage area at Disneyland called Harbor Pointe where the costuming building, scheduling, lockers, break rooms, and other cast resources are. After, we headed to a backstage classroom for the remainder of the day for the Selling Relationship Magic class which is essentially a very high-level introduction to Vacation Planning.

Day 2: Classroom Training

This will be the first day with your one-on-one trainer, which every trainee will get. I loved having one-on-one training because I really got comfortable with my trainer and she helped me a ton through the process. The first day was also pretty high-level introductory information and getting things set up. During the course of the classroom training days, we read the training guidebook to Vacation Planning, and on the first day, we read the first 1/3.

Day 3: Classroom Training

On day 3, we finally got into a booth and started training on our point of sale system called Galaxy. We learned the more basic transactions these days and using play money and mock credit cards to practice the transactions. We also read the 2/3 of the guidebook.

Day 4: Classroom Training

We spent most of day 4 reviewing the transactions we’d already learned and learned some of the more confusing transactions. The confusing transactions were dealing with ticket vouchers which is when someone buys tickets from a travel company outside the U.S, and also quick order pickups which is when someone buys tickets online in the U.S. and they are basically on will call. We also learned more about annual pass transactions this day, and finished reading the last third of the guidebook. We also had a short written assessment at the end of this shift. It wasn't really pass/fail, it was more just testing your knowledge based on the guidebook and my trainer went over the questions I missed with me.

Day 5: Live Booth Day 1

My first day in the booth was overwhelming, to say the least. With my trainer behind me and helping me through transactions, this was my first day actually at a window doing transactions with guests. I didn’t feel quite ready to be live at this point, and this day of my training happened to fall on Labor Day, so the park was incredibly busy, and the lines were non-stop. I wish I had been able to shadow a Vacation Planner before stepping into the booth because I really wasn’t quite sure what to expect, which made things even harder this day.

After my day 1 in the booth, I knew there was nowhere to go but up! I decided to buy play money from the dollar store and invite some of the other vacation planner trainees over to practice going over transactions with me after we all got off. I was feeling so overwhelmed and having people to talk and practice with who were in the same place as I really helped!

Day 6: Live Booth Day 2

Day 2 in the booth was much better than day 1, and I felt like I was slowly starting to know what I was doing more. I still had to ask lots of questions, but I felt like I was building up from a foundation of knowledge rather than feeling completely lost.

Day 7: Performance Assessment Day

My performance assessment was on my 3rd day in the booth, which is normally what it is unless someone needs extra days of training. A Vacation Planner other than my trainer evaluated me during my entire 8-hour shift on a multitude of criteria. Basically, you have to show that you can complete every single transaction that was taught to you, so they have someone standing outside the booths directing all the hard and less common transactions to your window during your performance evaluation. You still have the vacation planner doing your evaluation to ask questions to, but you’re just supposed to ask as little questions as possible. My PA went very smooth, and I was told I passed by lunchtime and they just weren’t able to tell me until the end of the shift!

Day 8: Solo Day 1

Day 9: Solo Day 2

Day 10: Solo Day 3

These next couple of days called "solo days" were scheduled after passing my performance evaluation. They’re technically just normal days after you’ve finished your training because you won’t have a trainer with you anymore, but they just schedule them like this, so the leads know you’re new and still learning during these few shifts.

In all, the training to be a Vacation Planner is a little more rigorous than the other roles, but I think it’s completely worth it. I really love my job now and I love how challenging it is because it keeps my mind working and keeps me entertained.

My advice to any future vacation planners is to buy a small notebook and take notes during your training on every transaction. Even if it takes time and your trainer just sits there while you write down the steps, they will appreciate how hard you're trying. Then, go home and study your notes every night after training to cement the knowledge in your head. If you're like me and haven't handled a register before, I'd also recommend buying play money from the dollar store and practicing with your family or friends. I wouldn't have been nearly as successful in this role if I didn't take the time during that first week to practice at home... and then you'll never have to do anything at home for your job again, but I really do recommend it that first week.

This role is amazing and no matter how overwhelming the training may feel, it is completely worth it. To any future Vacation Planners out there- feel free to send me a note with any questions and I'd be happy to answer to the best of my ability!