Guest reaction has been generally positive to Disneyland’s month-old Toy Story parking lot, located kitty-corner across Katella Avenue and Harbor Boulevard from the southeast corner of the resort. Despite having to park a greater distance from the Main Gate, being forced to ride a regular old bus instead of an open-air tram, and having to traverse across less-than-lovely Harbor Boulevard, most visitors give the new set-up high marks for convenience, comfort and, most importantly, travel time between the lot and theme parks. No more circling six stories up the Mickey & Friends parking structure, hiking a half-mile to the escalators, and elbowing for a seat on an overcrowded tram. With the Toy Story lot, guests typically drive directly to a ground-level parking spot and walk right on to a waiting, air-conditioned shuttle bus.
No, against the expectations of Team Disney Anaheim, it hasn’t been the guest who have been upset by the new lot, but rather the thousands of employees who park in the adjacent Katella Cast Member Lot (KCML).
“The guests enter and exit the lots from Harbor Boulevard, but the shuttle buses that take them to the parks drive through and enter and exit through KCML,” explained one cast member. “This has added traffic for us. It has also added some tension.”
Common cast members complaints include:
- The outside contractors Disney has hired to drive the guest shuttles are “not as courteous” as Disney University-trained cast members;
- The drivers don’t slow down in the Katella Cast Member Lot;
- The drivers are unwilling to stop for employees walking to and from their cars—and reportedly have cut off employees driving their cars in the Katella Cast Member Lot;
- The drivers “think they have priority over our shuttles who transport us to Harbor Point.”
What’s made matters worse is the feeling among cast members that guests are encroaching on their turf. For one thing, because the guest shuttles drive through the Katella Cast Member Lot, employee parking spots have been eliminated to make room for the buses. In addition, Resort Transportation & Parking needed a management outpost to oversee the Toy Story lot, so it added an office—inside the Katella Cast Member Lot. More employee spots gone. “TDA (Team Disney Anaheim, Disneyland’s corporate office) could have had it built in the Toy Story lot,” griped one worker. “Evidently, TDA believes we don’t deserve a lot of our own.”
And, to further compete for those precious employee parking spots, the construction workers “reimagining” DCA have also been instructed to park in the Katella Cast Member Lot.
Cast members have also lost their prime drop-off spot. The at-park employee shuttle stop was relocated from the convenient “green zone” at Harbor Point to accommodate the guest buses. One employee said Resort Transportation & Parking felt the location “impeded” the guest shuttles. Another worker heard that TDA wanted the guest buses to take over the stop, but discovered the vehicles were too long to make the turn to exit. For whatever reason, the old employee shuttle stop just sits there, unused.
Tensions really flared during the extra-busy weeks surrounding Easter. “The traffic around the resort has been getting really bad,” a cast member shared at the time. “Almost everyday this spring break, cast member shuttles are getting stuck in traffic. Several of them caused cast members to get marked for being late. Managers don’t care and have been freely marking their cast members late and giving them points against their record. To them, it does not matter—even if their workers called from their traffic-stranded shuttle to let them know that they would be late for their shift.”
As one marked-up worker lamented, “We had no control over this, and we are being punished.” Reportedly, several grievances were filed with the unions over parking lot-related tardiness.
In the ensuing weeks, little improved in terms of cast member parking—or morale. “Since then, absolutely nothing has been done,” an employee moaned. “Cast members are still complaining, and those complaints seem to be falling on deaf ears at Resort Transportation & Parking.”
“We,” sighed one cast member/motorist, “are second-class citizens.”
The Bobsleds Are Coming
Much to the annoyance of guests, the Matterhorn was closed on a number of weekdays during the previous two weeks to allow testing of redesigned bobsleds. In addition to a sleeker look, the main differences will be in how guests are seated (“Each guest will have their own seat—like the new Splash Mountain logs—to avoid any awkwardness between them”) and guests will be buckled in, like on Indy (“This will prevent guests from unlatching the belts and trying to get out.”).
Return of the Pit
Already months behind schedule, the opening of the new Westside Diner has been moved back from July to August. But to drum up excitement, TDA has announced a naming contest for the rebuilt employee cafeteria.
Iron Man Visits Disneyland
With the Disney Company’s acquisition of Marvel, the Disney Stores and the Disney Store Web site are now carrying Marvel superhero clothing, toys and figures. And beginning next month, locations within the Disneyland Resort will begin selling merchandise tied to the new Iron Man 2 film.
As far as which shops will carry the merchandise, one worker speculated at the World of Disney, as well as the larger locations inside the parks. “Judging from history, the Emporium and Star Trader are likely places,” he said. “When the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers were popular, those locations sold their toys.”
Even more interesting will be what Walt Disney World decides to do with the merchandise—since the Marvel superheros are among the signature characters of their archrival, the Universal Resort.
Slip You a Mickey?
Starting next Friday, Store Command and other merchandise locations at the resort will put out “trading tables” to allow Vinylmation collectors to trade their pieces just as the pin traders do. It seems the average cast member is bewildered by the popularity of these “modern day Beanie Babies.”
For the uninitiated, a cast member explained to me, Vinylmation are “small, about three-inch-tall vinyl figures shaped vaguely like Mickey. Each figure is painted in a stylized form. For example, one series is on the parks. Each figure is painted like an attraction vehicle, like the monorail, or the castle, or a ghost from the Haunted Mansion. Another series was on holidays, and the figures were painted like a Thanksgiving turkey, a jack o’lantern, etc. The figures are packaged in boxes where the collectors do not know which one they bought until they open them. I still can’t figure it out.”
