Posted: July 25, 2024
By: Faculty of Engineering
In a world of timeless tales and Cinderella’s castle, a young Dalhousie engineering graduate is doing her part to put smiles on the faces of millions of people at the Walt Disney World Resort (WDW) in Florida.
Flo Park (BEng’18) is not your typical Disney character at the resort; she’s an industrial engineer (IE), tirelessly working behind the scenes to make magic happen.
Her mission: to enhance park efficiency to improve guest experience.
On the walk to her office at Hollywood Studios, she listens to the echoes of laughter as guests embark on the famous Tower of Terror attraction. Her days are far from ordinary; as the park IE for EPCOT, she regularly collaborates with park operators, entertainment teams, and project managers, using data to inform teams on how to streamline Guest flow, implement efficient practices, and optimize attraction queues.
On this particular day, she is about to depart for EPCOT to meet with operations teams at “Frozen Ever After” and “Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind”, two popular attractions where guests can set out on their own adventures with the beloved characters from the movies Frozen and Guardians of the Galaxy.
“We’re going to walk the attractions with some of the leaders to identify pain points at attraction load and unload, with the ultimate goal of improving their throughput and wait time goals,” she says.
“Being an IE here is unique because our work directly impacts guest experience,” she explains. “As a park IE, my work on attractions heavily involves what we call ‘Guests Carried’, or the throughput, of an attraction. I ask questions such as, how many guests can ride in an hour? How does that affect wait time? What is guest behaviour at different times of the day?”
Her responsibilities extend beyond rides and attractions, focusing on broader park dynamics from parking impacts to food and beverage capacities, nighttime spectaculars to character meet and greet locations.
Hired in May 2022, her current focus area is EPCOT Park Operations. However, she notes that the IE team operates on a rotational program, allowing IEs to support several areas around the company.
The journey from the classroom to the most magical place on earth has been nothing short of fairy tale for Park. She attributes her good fortune to her time at Dalhousie Engineering, particularly the opportunity to explore different engineering disciplines during her first year of the program before making a commitment to one.
Immersing herself in Dalhousie’s tight-knit community and the chance to engage in diverse extra-curricular activities such as the Dalhousie Theater Society, Park eventually became president of the Institute of Industrial and System Engineers’ Dalhousie chapter. Through her active participation, she forged connections that would ultimately pave the way for her into the enchanting realm of Disney.
“I know it’s sometimes rare to truly love your job, but I truly love mine,” she says. “I think there’s such a cool aspect of being an Industrial Engineer at Disney.
“Honestly, sometimes my job doesn’t totally feel real. I’ve thoroughly and genuinely loved it."
