Visualization tip: Consider the possible nets of the rectangular prism that makes up the room, and find what the shortest path on one of them would look like.
Another way of thinking about the visualization is to make a model of the surface that can fold up to form it. The shortest path (which will be a diagonal if not a straight line) on any of those is the answer.
You're going to have to explain your math here, because I don't believe the diagonal is going to give you 40 (unless I'm visualizing the problem incorrectly). In fact, I believe the diagonal is longer than the naive solution.
The "obvious" solution is down 11 feet to the floor, 30 feet across the floor, and 1 foot up to the honey, for a total of 42 feet. Instead picture the room "unfolded" into a series of squares and rectangles and laid flat. Then use the pythagorean theorem to find the length of the diagonal that connects the ant and the honey while staying on a surface the whole way. You'll get (6+12+6)^2 + (1+30+1)^2 = c^2 or c = 40.
Visualization tip: Consider the possible nets of the rectangular prism that makes up the room, and find what the shortest path on one of them would look like.