Evangelina M.
Name: Evangelina M.
Position: Room Attendant
Property: Orlando World Center Marriott Resort & Convention Center
Dream Destination: Cancun
Drink or treat of choice: Cappuccino
Every year, few destinations attract more families from across the globe than Orlando’s Disney World. Situated just a 10 min drive from Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom is Orlando World Center Marriott Resort & Convention Center, a family-friendly resort with its own waterpark — yes, its own waterpark — which thanks to its three multi-rider waterslides and 575-foot lazy river, has become one of the biggest and most loved waterparks in all of Florida. This magical place has been Evangelina’s second home for the past 5 years.
As a Room Attendant, Evangelina prepares the rooms and suites for the hundreds of thousands of guests that this mighty, Disney-adjacent hotel welcomes every season. “We have a good time here,” says Evangelina, who’s been with the resort since 2018.
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And just as diverse as the guests that visit the hotel is the community of associates that make sure the hotel is ready to make everyone’s vacation a magical one. No matter where in the world you are, at any Marriott hotel you’ll find associates from every corner of the world, but Florida in particular converges one of the biggest Hispanic populations in the United States (5.7 million in 2020 according to PEW Research).
Courtesy of Evangelina M.
Getting together to celebrate their culture is another way in which Marriott associates build community. That’s the spirit behind Marriott’s Associate Resource Groups — ARGs as we call them — aimed to give associates the chance to get to know their coworkers better, celebrate their backgrounds, and give back to the communities where they live beyond work.
For Evangelina, who is originally from Pachuca, Mexico, the massive Orlando resort’s Hispanic Associate Resource Group has become a place where she can celebrate her roots and learn about all the other cultures within the Hispanic community.
“The group organizes events celebrating the culture of the different countries represented in our community, bringing food from different regions or wearing traditional clothes,” she says. “[The organizers] are always attentive to all of us and they make us feel very good.»
Courtesy of Evangelina M.
Learn more about Evangelina’s experience in her own words below.
Favorite part of the job?
The satisfaction I get from cleaning, from doing my job right and seeing the guests happy with my service. The guests are so kind and seeing them happy is what fascinates me.
Do you remember a moment when you felt particularly proud of your job?
I am proud of my job every day. I like to clean the rooms and I like to make people happy with what I have to give them.
How have you felt supported at Marriott?
When I first started. I already had experience working in rooms, but every hotel is different. Here, for example, the bathrooms are made with different materials [than where I used to work at before] but we had five days of training where they teach you everything. The managers are very helpful, they help us progress more, do things better.
When have you felt like part of a community at Marriott?
There are people from all over the world working at this hotel! And I feel like we all get along. Hispanic or not, we work as a team, and that makes me feel good. If someone needs help and I finish early, I try to help them. If they finish early, they help me, and we all work better like that.
Have you used Marriott’s Explore Rate?
Yes. I look at the offers and I make plans and travel with the family. Last December we went to Virginia to see my husband’s daughter and we spent Christmas there.
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