Xel-Ha Blog

For Ronald Hood, Operation Manager of “Typhoon Lagoon”, one of the most important aquatic parks in Florida, the service quality offered in Xel-Ha was “an impressive experience” to the point in which he claimed “a trip to Mexico would simply be incomplete without visiting this Natural Wonder.

Ronald Hood addressed a letter to Visitor Attention manager, Miriam Vial, in which he expressed his enthusiasm upon visiting this unique attraction of the Riviera Maya as part of his Caribbean tour. “We had a great cruise and the highlight was the stop at your park,” said the Disney executive, who also gave a detailed an explanation of the services offered here.

“The guest service was outstanding.  Every employee that we came into contact with was phenomenal.  They all had a smile and were ready to help.   Not sure what the secret is. They all seemed happy to be there and happy to help the guests.” This was expressed by Hood when writing of the serviceable attitude he found amongst Xel-Ha’s personnel.

In another part of the account, Ronald Hood remarked about the way Xel-Ha’s staff took care of problems: “I was at the ticketing area waiting for you when I first arrived.  A woman with her son was having a ticket problem.  She was very upset.  You had a person come out of the booth and make contact with them.  They had a conversation and the woman went away very happy.  I think that the employee was very empowered and able to assist.  This was very impressive.”

In mentioning the attractions at Xel-Ha, the Disney executive emphasised: “We did the snorkel down the river and it was very good.  The staff was great all along the route.  Lifeguards and staff at the mask issue point were great, very friendly, professional and engaging.”

Hood also referred to the general image of Xel-Ha, saying: “The park was very clean.  I looked around and really could not find any cleanliness issues.  This is very rare for a water park, especially in the changing areas.  They were always cleaned and maintained. I saw the new water fountains going in.  They looked great. Your food and beverage operation was also very impressive. We ate at the local food sit down restaurant and the service as well as food was very good.”

He also praised the managing of aquatic gear: “Lifejackets were plentiful and very clean.  I was impressed by how many and how they are handled.  Very well done.  This is a big issue for water parks and it seems you have handled it well. I was a big fan of the fact that you charge a very nominal fee for the snorkels.  This keeps you from having to clean them and lowers your costs for operation.  We are looking at this change for our own shark reef exhibit here.” 

Today, the service and organisation philosophy developed by Disney is a mandatory reference in the world of international tourism, hence the importance of Ronald Hood’s comments on Xel-Ha. “Typhoon Lagoon” is a water-park in a tropical setting located on Lake Buena Vista, Florida. It covers almost 55 acres and was built around an enormous wave pool that covers two-and-a-half acres in itself and employs 2,746,790 gallons of water.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Awards and acknowledgements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.