Day 24

Wednesday was a day we were all looking forward to – Hong Kong Disneyland! We started the day with a meeting in Disney University inside the main Hong Kong Disneyland Offices. In the meeting we were able to discuss the way that Disney has adapted business to work within Asian culture. It was interesting to hear about Disney’s efforts to maintain Disney culture and incorporate Asian culture at the same time. One great example of this was the Star Employee program. Disney culture encourages positive reinforcement for employees, they value good work and give praise for it. In order to incorporate this into Hong Kong Disneyland, Disney created a program that recognizes positive actions of employees. As our speaker pointed out, at first this was difficult for the employees to be comfortable with but as the program grew, employees got more and more excited about the compliments that they received. The Disney culture of positive reinforcement was able to flow into the Asian cultured employees.

After our meeting, we were given park tickets and then taken on a tour of Disneyland. As our guide pointed out, it was designed to look and feel just like every other Disney park in the world, and it did. After the tour we were given the rest of the day free to wander the park or do whatever we wanted. Although the park was smaller than Disneyland in the States, the majority of us chose to stay and play. We had fun just wandering and riding the rides. Space Mountain was a big hit, most of us rode it at least four times. The crowds were small, the rides were fun and the atmosphere was exciting. All in all, the day at Disneyland was great.
-Nikell-