Katie Dawson, sales consultant at Co-operative Travel in Wakefield, gets to grips with the online Disney Stars programme.
The training programme is split into three levels – bronze, silver and gold. There are 115 questions, and for each correct you receive a star. Once you’ve done the course, there are refresher programmes.
As you complete the levels, you get prizes including soft toys. At the end you get a certificate and a Disney Stars Card with a number you can use to claim concession tickets.
What did you want to get out of the course? I wanted to improve my ability to sell Disney and make sure there are no gaps in my product knowledge. For example I learnt about the Year of a Million Dreams, which includes new attractions.
Did the course format work for you? It was quite easy to use and I found the format straightforward. If I needed help at any stage I would just go to the tips section. It also had auto save, which meant that if I got interrupted when I was working online, what I had done was saved.
I found this really useful.
What was the most useful part of the course? It was good to find out all about the new parts of the product, for example when I did the course the first time I learnt about the dining plan.
What part of the course do you think could be improved? I can’t think of any way it could be improved.
What did you think of the trainer? We didn’t have a trainer as such, but the tips section was definitely helpful. You wouldn’t have known how to do some bits of the course without the tips section.
What was the most valuable thing you learnt? It was very useful to learn about the room plans for the lodges. These are a bit further out of the resort and usually I sell the main hotels, but now I can sell the lodges too.
How will the course change the way you sell the product? You do get more confident. I had been out to Disney, which really helps because you can sell from experience. But if I hadn’t been out, this course would have definitely given me an insight into what is going on at each park. You can also plan how to set up an itinerary for customers, which is very helpful.