Okay, Disneyland… time to take action. Safety First!
So, I have returned from the wilds of Orange County. For the most part, it was an enjoyable three days in Anaheim. But the image above was definitely one of the lower moments.
Yes, loyal readers, this is the kind of thing Disneyland needs to step in and put an end to. For the record, this was on the afternoon of Friday, June 20th at about 2:45 pm. Astute folks may recognize this location as along the Rivers of America between Frontierland and New Orleans Square. Where at 9:00 pm that evening, the first of two performances of Fantasmic will take place. Pretty much the center of where the audience will be.
As you may also see, there was a fairly good crowd in the Park that day. Even though many AP’s were blacked out, there were more than enough folks having a good time. During the day, the area along the river here is used for stroller parking for guests heading off on Pirates. A good call as that can equate to lots of strollers in one spot at a time.
Now it’s one thing to grab a curbside spot for that parade coming by in a bit, but more than six hours in advance? A bit over the top. Way over. And if you look closer, you will see that on two of those blankets are the vests of one of the social clubs that call the Park their turf. It’s obvious to me that the folks who did this were veteran visitors staking out their space for the long haul.
The scene above is a recipe for disaster in the making. All one would need to do is slip and fall on one of those blankets and be trampled under foot. Lawsuits just waiting for the taking. The trip of a lifetime in way too many ways.
So, what does Disneyland need to do? Simple! Station someone from Security here, who firmly and politely informs guests that they can not place a blanket on the faux stones to save a place for the performance – more than an hour before it begins. Explain it as matter of safety. Disneyland has placed guest safety in high regard and I can think of no better way to show this.
Take things to another level and make Fantasmic work just like World of Color. Fast Passes and all. It would help greatly. I can imagine that it would help with some of the traffic flow issues as well.
And don’t stop here, the same should apply on Main Street and in the hub before fireworks. Setting up to save a place should be limited to an hour before the performance. Any earlier than that should not be allowed.
Time for Disney to take back some responsibility here. Don’t worry about saying “no” to a safer situation.
No going back…
It’s funny really.
One of the most common things shared by repeat visitors to Disneyland is the desire to travel back to a previous visit. To enjoy the same experiences as they happened before or as we would like to remember them as happening.
Be it the Peoplemover, the Skyway, or any of the myriad of attractions gone off to Yesterland, fans of this theme park all have that favorite that they would like to see revived in some way. And that isn’t a bad thing, to an extent.
Disneyland is all about memories. Making them or reliving them. Even theme park merchandise tags at this desire with all kinds of goodies to take home from the Parks and share with others. Right down to that shirt or pin that pays homage to a dear departed icon. Even Walt, in his desire to have a place where all members of a family could enjoy something together, realized that those memories created by the shared experience would be a great thing.
Recently, some folks have derided the Park’s Annual Passholder’s who just seem to come to the places to “hang out”. Now while I can’t plead guilty to that myself, I have visited Disneyland and spent the whole day with just one attraction or ride – The Disneyland Railroad. Mostly because it was efficient transportation that got me where I was going. I was by myself (okay, it was my 40th birthday), but I did enjoy a nice meal (lunch at the Blue Bayou) and I did buy a few Christmas gifts for others as well as a nice pocket watch for myself.
That day, the real joy came from just being at Disneyland and savoring the moments. Things like listening to the Royal Street Bachelors on the street of the same name in New Orleans Square; a performance by Billy Hill and the Hillbillies at the Golden Horseshoe in Frontierland; just walking about the Park and taking it all it. People watching.
Looking back, there are plenty of great memories with family and friends. Wouldn’t trade a moment of any of them. Would I like to go back and enjoy some of them all over again? I can think on a couple and that sure sounds tempting.
But the truth is that no visit will ever be the same as one before. And to those who would like to see the Park as a moment in time, trapped in amber as it were, it can never be. Too much has (and continues to) changed. For example, the only thing that may be unaltered? The Main Street Horse Cars. Pretty much as they were opening day. But even those cars have been repainted, with minor changes over the years.
Buildings wear different colors than they have over the years. Signs tell of changes, too. Foot paths have been altered to best allow the flow of people. It’s not a museum. Disneyland changes to respond to needs,a s it should
The perils of nostalgia? Yeah, they are lurking about. My advice is to enjoy the past, but don’t live in it – no matter how cheap the rent. Enjoy the “now” instead. Make new memories to take home.
Always worth the effort!
Disney fandom – communication and shared interests
This weekend brings an interesting discussion to the Walt Disney Family Museum. Entitled “The Fan Driven Time Machine”, it promises a look at what fans have brought to the world of theme parks.
Having been around since the age when dinosaurs roamed the online world, I am looking forward to hearing what others have to say. My own connection to the outside world from home started way back when with dial up connections on a monochrome (a.k.a. green screen) Apple ][e. There were the local BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) at first. Then came the Internet newsgroups such as rec.arts.disney. After that it was the online subscriber services such as America OnLine, GEnie and Compuserve. And finally, when the Internet took off with folks creating their own websites. Today we have the mega-churches of online Disney fandom such as Mouseplanet and Micechat, with news/info sites like Yesterland and Jim Hill Media. Fanzines such as Persistence of Vision or the E Ticket. Toss in the podcasts such as Window To The Magic and various Youtube channels, Facebook pages/groups and you have a full multimedia package of information on your Disney fandom to choose from.
Take Disneyland for an example. Opened in 1955. The 25th anniversary? 1980. Fans gleaned what information they could from the resources available. Travel agencies or their local AAA clubs; the Magic Kingdom Club or the late lamented Vacationland magazine. The Disney Channel? Not until 1983 did it start sharing over local cable television.
No, it was the 35th anniversary of the Park when fandom communicated online on what to expect. Thanks to some of those resources, I took in the festivities from Park open to close with a couple of good friends. And actually was able to meet some of the people from across the country who I had only communicated with by online messages. Even e-mail was a rare treat in those days. Most folks simply didn’t have an ISP (Internet Service Provider) yet.
Now, every last detail of anything happening at the Park is available online for all to see, dissect and comment on.
In reality, it has only been that last ten years or so that most folks have taken up the online world and it’s fan communities in numbers worth noting. It has been amusing for me to have been a Community Manager at AOL and watch the growth we had there (notably X Files, Star Trek and Soap Opera fans) and how things have come full circle with similar communities now on Facebook. The only real difference is that instead of the paid subscriber model of services like AOL, today’s Facebook makes use of advertising revenue to drive the economics. Many of the same folks are still saying the same things or sharing the same information they did, oh so many years ago. Look over any of the message boards on the mega-church websites and you find things have not changed much.
The same dissemination of information was true in years gone by for fans of Star Trek as an example. Fans heard someone say something somewhere at a convention and took that for gospel, sharing it with one another. While that rumor may have been shared to gauge response with little truth behind it. For example, look how many years it actually took Paramount to have a new Star Trek series on television. Not on one of the major networks, but on it’s own network. And even that went through several attempts before it finally aired.
Part of the evil that this process has brought is that folks so want every last detail, that they are ripe for the misleading. Where one person may start a rumor because they heard information from a friend who heard from someone who works in a minor department in the Disney company, such rumors become gospel in short order. Spread out and about on the Internet, Twitter or Facebook, such rumors spread like wild fires. Running amuck with no one to stop them. Note the proliferation of scams for free this or that. Heck, I freely admit to having chimed in on some, because as much as anyone, I would like some of the free shrimp now and then.
And I have no doubt that folks at various levels inside Disney have used the online world to sample the waters now and then. Put out a good juicy rumor through a source and see what the response is. If enough folks like what they hear or hate it, that’s a good sample to craft future proposals. Or is it? Garbage in, garbage out or GIGO is a good online term. Folks who believe it because they saw it online? Oh, yeah…
Disney is not alone in this kind of thing. Be it theme parks or movies or other entertainment, plenty of folks have interests that they want to learn more about. And Disney is learning how to make use of this. Marketing using this as a tool? You bet! If you can go right to your consumers in the privacy of their homes with information, why not do so? As good as free advertising, directed marketing works. If people want you to share information directly with them, it would be downright silly not to take advantage of it. Why do you think all of these online pages/contests have that option to get more information? Because people ask for it.
Yes sir, it’s an age of miracles we live in!
Now, which one to believe…
An Afternoon in the City
In the words of the late Herb Caen, “Items! Items! Who’s got items?”
Yesterday saw the Disney cruise line “Wonder” make it’s one and only port call in San Francisco for 2014. The ship was on it’s way from San Diego to Vancouver on a 5-day cruise. Plenty of happy faces out and about along the Embarcadero and Fisherman’s Wharf. I’m still trying to figure out the 2:00 am departure. Guess it was sailing on the tides…
It was a glorious day in the City, if you didn’t get caught in the breeze from the West. Sunny and 70 degrees reported. Noted a good number of the double-ended PCC streetcars in service on the F Line. That Market Street Railway paint scheme on the 1011 is growing on me. The ultimate “what if”.
Handy tool and neat as well, how about this live map showing the locations of all the streetcars in service on the line? Even those great throwback streetcars from Milan can be tracked using this.
Speaking of San Francisco Streetcars, a neat (and free) place to visit near the Ferry Building is the Market Street Railway groups museum and gift shop. Well worth a stop!
I guess I need to take in more of the tourist destinations now and then. Take Ghiradelli Square as an example. Who knew they had another location west of the usual one? Good to add more space to enjoy all of that good stuff.
A couple of other free stops along the way? The National Park Service has a great visitors center at the corner of Jefferson and Hyde. A great look at the Maritime history of not only the Bay but all of northern California. And the history continues outside at the paid Hyde Street Pier, with some fine ships to visit.
For something a bit more whimsical, hidden amongst all the usual tourist goodies at Fisherman’s Wharf, check out the Musee Mecanique on Pier 45. Marvels from all over the mechanical era await to entertain for only 25 cents each! Even that legendary arcade game of Pong! And outside, you will also find the World War II submarine USS Pampanito available for tours as well as the Liberty ship, Jeremiah O’Brien. The O’Brien is heading out this weekend on it’s annual Veterans Memorial Cruise – four hours along San Francisco Bay. Been aboard of those cruises myself and a good time it was!
Lastly, no visit along the Embarcadero is complete without a stop at the Ferry Building. Just too many great places to tempt the palate. Plenty of great dining choices or excuses to pick up something for later to take with you.
All with a good stretch of the legs along the way…
Disneyland Prices and the Beginning of the End?
Ah, yes… the inevitable annual price increases at Disneyland. As the modern era of stockholder value demands that double digit profits continue, who can be truly surprised when these come along?
But, wait! There is a bit of a wrinkle this year. Those wily folks in the offices at Disney have decided to suspend the sales of the Southern California Annual Pass. Depending upon who spins the tale out here in the blogosphere on the Net, this can be read as a simple adjustment or the oncoming rush of doom for this class of Disneyland Annual Passholder.
How about a few minor niggling details to cloud the view? For example, once upon a time, there was only one type of annual pass to the Park. That’s right! Only one. Good for admission and all attractions, excluding the Shooting Galleries in Frontierland and Adventureland. Including parking and good during all normal dates and times of Disneyland operation.
During a period when attendance numbers dipped, a bright solution was seen to be the local populace. Those folks who lived close to Disneyland, in the Southern California area. One way to attract them was to offer a lower priced Annual Pass which allowed admission to the Park during off-peak periods. During the busy summer months, those Southern California AP’s were blacked out – meaning you couldn’t use that AP for admission then. As the pass system matured, many Saturdays were added to that black out calendar. Still, a good value with Sunday’s available. As many of the folks who came from out of town used Sunday’s as a travel day, even during peak time of year, guest numbers in the park were not crushing.
Funny thing, Disneyland has suspended sales of this class of Annual Passes once before, in 2001. And when the numbers fell off, they resumed sales. It may be in the small print but on the Disneyland web pages, you can find this text: “Pass types are limited in quantity, and may not be available.”
In other words, Annual Passes are not unlimited in number. And a minor point? Disney is not eliminating these passes. Folks who currently have them or event those who had passes expire in the last 90 days can still renew their passes. Disney is just not selling any new ones, right now.
I know I have said this before, but the truth is that while the number of guests with Annual Passes is good, this is not the most desirable guest demographic. That honor lies with the mythical first time family of four, spending more per capita than the AP’s. To be sure there are some AP’s, such as the Premium, who may spend more than the rest of the AP world on their visits. But the problem are those AP’s who don’t spend, who may just visit Disneyland to hang out. Socialize with others, just even to take in being at the Park. Those folks who camp out for fireworks, Fantasmic or World of Color.
Overcrowding at Disneyland seems to have become an issue. You could expect it during those summer/holiday peak periods. But when the gates to the Park have to be shut because capacity has been reached? Those unusual occurrences have become more in number. When even parking lots are closed and there is simply no where to park all those autos. Those times are happening far too often. And that creates a conundrum for the folks at TDA.
Yes, stock holder value is being served. Profits are good. But the quality of the guest experience? Not what is should be. When lines for food/beverages are too long – even at an outdoor vending location – people tend to become discouraged and will not wait. And when the lines for a restroom rival some attraction waits? Not “good show” by any means.
So, what to do? Suspending the sales of the Southern California Annual Passes is a good start. Fast Pass Plus? Still to early to tell if that experiment will ever come to Anaheim. The return of ticket books? Less likely than the return of the People Mover.
Disneyland is just too popular. As long as people continue to pay the prices for all of the experience, don’t look for price cutting. If things continue so well, could the suspension of the Southern California Select AP be next? Perhaps.
Lest anyone think otherwise, there are people inside the management of Disneyland who do have a clue or three. They understand that the draw of the place is magic to guests. And they do want to know what guests think about their visits to the Park. As odd as it may seem, the suspension of sales of new Southern California AP’s is a positive step in the improvement of the overall guest experience. That concept, a positive guest experience, still drives the best publicity/promotional effort that Disney can hope for – the good word of mouth. If I have a good time during my Disneyland visit, odds are pretty good (especially in today’s world of social media) that I will share it with family and friends. Who will likely come to visit the Park and have their own positive guest experience.
Somehow, it seems to work. Because in the words of Mister Willy Wonka, “they’re certainly not showing any sign that they are slowing!”