What Happened at Disney Was More Than a Retreat

By Miylie Roan

We just wrapped up our 2026 annual company retreat at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, and I've been sitting with it for a few days, trying to figure out how to put it into words. The truth is, some things you just have to experience to fully understand. But I'll do my best.

It started with intentional connection

Rather than dropping everyone into one big group activity right away, the retreat started with smaller groups of coworkers heading to different parks together. That design choice made all the difference because when you're navigating a theme park with four or five people instead of thirty, the conversations go deeper and existing ones get stronger.

Then Mickey showed up

At some point during the retreat, employees got a surprise visit and the chance to take photos with Mickey Mouse himself. It sounds simple, but watching a room full of adults light up the way they did was one of the most purely joyful moments of the entire trip. There's something about Disney that gives people permission to be joyous, and we leaned into that fully.

TypeCoach made everything hit differently

One of the things that set this retreat apart from any we've done before was that our team came in with a shared language. Rob, our TypeCoach facilitator, worked with us on change management and innovation, and because so many employees already knew their types and had been using TypeCoach in their everyday conversations, the content didn't feel like a new concept being introduced. It felt like a deeper layer of something we had already started building together. The conversations were richer. The self-awareness in the room was palpable. People weren't just learning about innovation in theory. They were processing it through the lens of who they actually are, using their sensing or intuitive types.

The Honest Bowl

This was the moment I will never forget from this retreat.

As part of our True Lasting Change Through Innovation session, we did an exercise called the Honest Bowl. Everyone wrote an anonymous answer to the prompt: "The reason I haven't pushed harder on an idea I believed in is because..." The slips of paper went into a bowl, and I read them aloud to the group.

I had planned to read just a few. What happened instead was something I didn't expect. The room went completely silent. As I read each response, heads started nodding. People looked at each other. There were quiet wows. You could feel the recognition spreading through the room as people realized they weren't alone in their fears. What started as two or three anonymous note shares turned into reading the entire bowl because the team kept wanting more. They related to every single one.

Fear loses power when it's shared in a room full of people who feel the same thing. That's what happened in that room. It stopped being an exercise and became a genuine bonding moment that I think will stay with all of us for a long time.

What I'm taking away

Retreats are only as good as the intention behind them. This one was designed to bring people together, challenge them to think bigger, and remind them that the culture we're building here is something worth showing up for. I think it did all of that and more.

Thank you to every single person who brought their full self to Disney this year. You made it magical in every sense of the word.