David Zanolla teaches an advanced honors course at Western Illinois University called Communication Around the "World". The 'World', of course, is Disney World, and in addition to standard lectures and projects, the course includes a guided trip to Disney World in March.

You can't come on the trip - sorry! - but you can take a virtual seat in David's class by attending his weekly series, College in the Kingdom, exclusively on Disney Dispatch.

Consider this a make-up class: David Zanolla and his students are hard at work in Disney World, and we weren't able to get Sunday's College in the Kingdom ready for prime time until today.

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and I'm just now getting time to sit down and write.

So far, the first half of our trip has been a whirlwind.

We've had a tour of the Disney University, met with an EPCOT executive, and toured EPCOT with Jeff Kober and Disney's Hollywood Studios with historian/author Jim Korkis. I also may or may not have destroyed the class in Toy Story Midway Mania... twice.

How do I summarize the trip?

My students are amazing. I know the temptation is to tune out the learning and focus on the rides and shows. However, the exact opposite has been true. In fact, one of my students (I affectionately call them my 'kids') postponed using FastPasses for Tower of Terror so we could tour One Man's Dream with Jim Korkis who is an endless wealth of knowledge about Walt Disney - the man, the company, and the parks.
If the mantra of real estate is 'location, location, location,' the mantra of this trip thus far has been, 'guest, guest, guest.' Every Cast Member with whom we've met has exemplified the notion that Disney Parks focus on the guest experience. I'm sure I'll get blamed for 'drinking the Kool-Aid,' but everything we've seen and heard so far supports the claim that this organizational culture is intently focused on improving the guest experience.

Now, back to work!

(Be sure to read student Ethan Knight's blog to get another view.)

Visit the COURSE HOMEPAGE

Stuff Not to Skip

College in the Kingdom Homepage
http://www.disneydispatch.com/content/features/special/college-in-the-kingdom
Western Illinois University
http://www.wiu.edu
Communication Department at WIU (where David works)
http://wiu.edu/majors/degreeOverview.sphp?degree=20
Honors College at WIU (co-sponsors of David's course)
http://www.wiu.edu/centennial_honors_college

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