Day 9: Dins, Yaks, and Yetis: Oh My!

Oel Ngati Kameie – it's Katie and Jacob! We are very excited to be your hosts for today’s blog! It is Day 9, and as per usual, we are here to provide your daily update of our incredible trip. First, we just want to say a quick thank you to all of you who have been supporting our journey thus far – we have been enjoying every minute of it, and we hope you have too! 

We started the day with a class lecture on linear programming modeling. Our sample problem involved the creation of two different chocolate snacks. Each snack used a different number of resources, and the snacks sold for different prices. The goal was to discover how many of each type of snack should be manufactured to maximize profits. Once class concluded, we were given time to work on our group projects. Our cohort was split into two groups to solve two separate problems, both of which related to optimizing the amount of shifts it would take to operate a restaurant in Animal Kingdom, known as Yaks and Yetis. The groups were dependent on whether we students have taken a class known as Operations Research or not. 

After some productive work on our projects, we headed to Animal Kingdom, which happens to be both of our favorite kingdoms. We are proud to report that today was the first time in about a week that our entire class successfully made it through security without anyone being pulled to the side for suspicious umbrellas, questionable snacks, or any other items Disney security detectors seemed to like. Our first destination in the park was the Kilimanjaro Safari. As we walked to the safari area, our mathematical brains were already brainstorming how to seat ourselves in the car in the most optimal way. We recently challenged ourselves for everyone to sit next to every other person on a ride at least once. Since the safari seats four across, we had the opportunity to make significant progress towards our goal. We sat in the same row as two of our close friends, Savannah and Morgan. The safari was a nice break from the hustle bustle of the theme park sidewalks and attraction wait lines. We all had a great time and saw lions, giraffes, hippos, rhinos, flamingos, painted dogs, alligators, elephants, warthogs, and a cheetah. One fun fact we learned was that lions have 20-20 vision during the day, yet their vision is six times better at night! 

After the safari trip, we all agreed to split up and visit different attractions. Imagine our surprise when all the students decided to head immediately to Expedition Everest! We all arranged to sit next to someone we had not yet sat next to on the trip, and we enjoyed the high speeds and tall heights of the ride. 

When we finished the ride, many of us took some time to sit and reflect on our experiences so far. In a few days, we are going to participate in projects that follow prompts designed by student creativity, and so we each took fifteen minutes to come up with interesting questions to tackle based on what we have seen in the parks. After a nice reflection, we split ourselves into smaller groups. The two of us, along with seven others, decided to ride Expedition Everest again. Then, we rode it again. Then, we rode it again. Then, we rode it again. Then, we- 

Okay, we didn’t actually ride it a million times, but we did have a great time going for three trips, especially since the wait time was relatively short, and the ride was a fan favorite for students on the trip. 

Once successfully escaping the yeti, not one, but three, times we made our way to Avatar: Flight of Passage to fly on a banshee and immerse ourselves in the world of Avatar. The technology and amount of detail incorporated into this ride are impressive, and we enjoyed experiencing this attraction for the second time during the program. The world of Avatar introduces the Na’vi language from the culture of Na’vi. Oel Ngati Kameie  translates to “I see you,” which is a common respectful way to introduce oneself. 

After Avatar, we had a short amount of time to spend before rejoining the large group. Since today’s temperature was above 90 degrees, we treated ourselves to some refreshing slushies. Soon we were on our way to meet up with the group and head to dinner...that is, until we found out there would be a delay. We never would have guessed we would be saying this, but our professors became stuck on the top of Mount Everest and had to climb down the treacherous slopes on foot!!!  For context, the Expedition Everest ride broke down when our professors reached the very top of the mountain, and an evacuation became necessary. 

While our professors safely made their way from the snowy mountain to the hot Florida temperatures, us students enjoyed playing some favorite camp games, which included Ninja, untangling a human knot, and Signs. 

At the end of our adventurous day in Animal Kingdom, we picked up some food on our way back and then headed to the hotel to tackle our projects some more. Now, we are each going to talk about our own personal experiences! 

Greetings from Disney!  This is Katie. Thank you for joining us on our thrilling Thursday adventures. I loved spending time in Animal Kingdom today. It was one of my favorite parks last time I visited Disney (2008), and now, sixteen years later, it is still my favorite. I love the large tree in the middle with the detailed carvings of animals. Two of my top three rides (Expedition Everest and Avatar: Flight of Passage) are located in this kingdom. My other favorite is Guardians of the Galaxy in Epcot. 

Additionally, my project group is excited to keep making progress and finding the optimal way to schedule shifts of employees. Such a simple problem at first glance has many complexities and must be solved every day at Disney on an even larger scale. We do not yet have a complete solution but have some ideas on approaches and modifications we would like to incorporate to solve the problem.  The research projects have given me a much greater appreciation for the amount of planning, attention to detail, understanding of data analytics, and organization required to efficiently and safely operate Disney on a daily basis. I am so grateful to Drs. Bouzarth, Harris, and Hutson for their hard work, time, and effort, in planning this transformative program and allowing us to explore research projects to understand the importance of mathematics  

Jacob here – hope you have been enjoying our post so far! Today for me has been a lot of fun. I really enjoy animals, whether it is seeing them from afar, watching them in documentaries, drawing them, interacting with them, etc. I was thrilled to learn that we had Animal Kingdom on the schedule for today, and I was looking forward to going on the safari tour. My favorite animal to see were the giraffes. I find giraffes funny. Like, what is more likely to exist? A horse with a horn on its head or a mammal with a seven-foot-long neck? The existence of giraffes fascinates me. Anyways, I should probably talk about something relevant.  

I was placed in the group that has had experience in Operations Research. It was daunting at first, since I have not taken Operations Research, but I have been following along quite well! To me, this has been similar to a minor crash course in the subject, and my partners Alyssa and Ellis have been super supportive and helpful. I am very excited to see what our results for this project are! 

That’s all. As the next several days continue, we will do as the people of the Na’vi culture instruct: Sivako!