Celebrity book-signings are a common way to promote a product, but when they are combined with a teen/pre-teen heartthrob icon, it takes the event to a whole new level. One recent event for a signing by Twilight actor Robert Pattinson at a San Francisco-area mall resulted in a mob scene where one girl’s nose was broken (more details here). When the Jonas Brothers signing at Disney’s California Adventure was announced, I envisioned a similar scenario might unfold. MousePlanet reader Kristina D. wrote a letter about her experience at the Jonas Brothers signing at California Adventure, and sent a copy to share with MousePlanet readers:
I wrote this letter today and sent it to the Orange County Register. It is hard to find contact information for Corporate Disney, so I thought I would also send to MousePlanet.
Thank you for listening!
Jonas Brothers Book Signing at Disneyland California Adventure—A mother’s lament.
To: OC Register and Adam Townsend, Orange County Register
cc. Jay Rasulo, Chairman, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts; Jonasbrothersfanclub.com Staff
First, I want to say that I am not typically the type of person who sits down and writes a complaint, and I never envisioned a day when I would write a letter of complaint to Disneyland. I am sending a paper copy of this letter to Jay Rasulo, and to the Staff members of the Jonas Brothers Fan Club. I don’t know if they will receive the letters based on the contact information I was able to source, so I am also asking for the help of the OC Register to see that the letter gets to the intended recipients.
As a working mother of three girls (ages, 14, 8 and 6), suffice to say there is a lot of love in our home for the Jonas Brothers, and fan club membership is an absolute.
The girls immediately grabbed hold of the announcement of a book signing at Disneyland California Adventure on November 25th. They printed the rules that were posted and proceeded to negotiate with me on our ability to go.
Now, we live in Cave Creek, Arizona. While Disneyland California poses some challenges in terms of travel, expense, time, etc, I suspect my challenges are not fundamentally too different than those of any other parent and/or grandparent who were asked to take their kids to this event. Other than maybe the guilt a working mother feels when she has to balance life’s” priorities, against her 3 girls saying “we have to try to meet them! We love them SOO much, please!”
So, after working a full day on Monday the 24th, I made some changes to my time-off requests at my employer, packed up our 10-year-old land cruiser with sleeping bags and snacks, invited Gramma to keep me company on the drive, pulled some cash out of savings, and headed to California at about 7pm on the 24th. My girls were so excited they couldn’t even sleep on the ride over, talking about “what if they really got to meet the boys!” Admittedly, the fact that the event was sponsored and hosted by Disneyland was truly the selling factor for me. In my 37 years, Disneyland has never disappointed me. Growing up in Southern California, Disneyland was practically a second home to me and my family and any event held at the park from Birthday Parties to Grad Nights to Marching in Parades with High School Bands were always executed with class, and caring.
We arrived at Disneyland just before 12:30 am on the 25th. According to the rules, the line wouldn’t be allowed to form until 1am. Additionally, the rules explicitly stated ” holding a place in line for others in your party will not be allowed. Guests who wish to obtain a wristband to purchase the book must be present when the line forms or they will be escorted to the back of the line.” See copy of wristband rules pulled from the website at end of this letter.
Well, perhaps this is where I might be told it was naive of me to believe that Disneyland would uphold the rules they put in place, and have the appropriate people, process and procedure to make sure that the rules were enforceable. Maybe my judgment was impaired based on all my previous positive experiences at Disneyland. I never expected Disneyland to fail at something they are so good at, and unfortunately the cost of my naivete came with a high price. Not in dollars, which are recoverable, but in something greater. In the early morning twilight of November 25th, the trust I placed in Disneyland put me in a position to disappoint my three little girls.
Looking back on the events that transpired between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. on the morning of the 25th, it is obvious to me that I saw the best and worst in humanity within a period of six hours.
At 1 a.m. when the line began to form, I was in the very front of the crowd. Mind you, based on the rules I had Gramma, my 14-year-old, and two girls under the age of 8. As soon as the Disneyland officials began moving the line, the crowd became unmanageable. So much so, the crowd must have been stopped at least 20 times in a matter of 60 feet due to the pushing and madness to get to the front. I immediately pulled my family to the far right doing my best to ask people not to run over my little ones. This chaos only got worse. A few feet away from me, my worst nightmare came true for another mom. Her little 8-year-old girl got trampled by the crowd, and a few of us where trying to part the crowd to allow her to get to safety.
Within a few minutes, it only got worse. I noticed that that a mother we had chatted up prior to 1 a.m. was separated from her three little girls, all of whom were under the age of 12. I immediately noticed they couldn’t find their mom and pulled the girls over to me, assuring them we would make our way through together until we were able to find their mom.
I ask you to picture this scenario. I am 5-foot-4, about 120 pounds. I now am trying my best to shepherd six girls and Gramma through a rushing crowd, and because of the rules stating that holding a place in line for others in your party will not be allowed, there was no option for us! The girls didn’t want to get out of line because it meant they wouldn’t get a chance at a wristband!
Finally about 2 a.m., the crowd turned into a “line” formed under the monorail track; Disney officials stated this was “The Line” and no one else would be allowed to join. A girl next to us in line went to the front of the line and counted backwards. She announced proudly that we were in position 270. Not bad I thought… again naively optimistic.
As a parent, there are moments that you will always want to remember; typically these represent the highs and lows. In those early morning hours, the “buzz” and excitement displayed by the hundred or so families I was surrounded with will be one of those highs I will never forget. Unfortunately, it will also be one of the lows.
At about 4 a.m. I took a stroll to the front of the line… and I couldn’t believe what I saw. The “single file line” that was formed at 1 a.m. under the monorail had grown to 10 people deep in some places. How could this have happened? The rules were so clear. I went to speak to one of the Security Guards and pointed to the obvious change in the line. It was clear that people were holding places in line for others and that Disney officials weren’t doing anything about it! If I had recounted, I expect our once held position at 270 would now be in the 400s.
I talked with three Security officials in the next 20 minutes. I showed them a printed copy of the rules. I pointed out the disparity in the line. I asked how they could let this happen. No one seemed to care about the outcome. This is what was truly disappointing. How could Disney not care about the outcome? This made no sense to me. They seemed perfectly content with any outcome.
The wristbands were finally handed out that morning and as expected, there weren’t enough to cover the line. There were about 100 children in the back of the line that went without. I am convinced that there would have been enough wristbands for all kids who came out to spend the night in line if Disney had done its job.
Here are a few recommendations.
1) Publish rules that you are able and willing to enforce. This means putting people, processes and procedures in place to allow the public to trust in the integrity of these rules. This would have been easy for Disney. Disney is an expert at managing lines. A few cabled lines with signs posted reinforcing the rules about “holding places and line cutting” would have been a perfect start. This works inside the park and the public knows how to behave. Officials can point to these rules and enforce them.
2) Ensure that families with wheelchairs and strollers, small children and aging grandparents aren’t discriminated against or disadvantaged based on the “allowed chaos” to get to the front of the line. Again, Disney is an expert here. Wheelchairs and strollers are always displayed courtesy. A possible solution would be to have a different line for families with wheelchairs, strollers or small children and pull equally from this line as you do from the line with the teenagers who forcibly found their way to the front of the line.
3) Employ Disney officials to staff the event who care about the outcome. I think the Jonas Brothers themselves would have been saddened to see how this event was handled. We caught a glimpse of them leaving the book-signing event and they seemed like such nice boys. I would ask that the Jonas Brother Franchise take a little deeper look into how their event handlers are representing them. Many of the Disney Security officials took their instruction from a guy named Nathan, who I can only describe as callous. He stood by and watched while the line in front grew by almost 200 people and did nothing about it. A family with a little girl in a wheelchair a few spots ahead of me pleaded with Nathan after he announced no more wristbands were available and he just seemed to be made of stone. He allowed for the process to fail this little girl and her family in the same way I hold him responsible for failing my girls and me.
4) Offer the meet and greet wristbands to kids first. Parents/guardians should be provided a “shadow” wristband. Allows for parents to follow their kids and take pictures, but reserve the “meet and greet” opportunity for the kids. This is where it belongs. I am curious how many adults received wristbands? Could this number have been the difference for the last 100 kids who were sent away with nothing?
In hindsight, if I had known that Disneyland wasn’t going to enforce the very rules they put in place, I would have asked Gramma to wait with the girls in Downtown Disney and meet me in the line once it was formed. As it turns out, many of the parents walking with small children, grandparents, strollers were disadvantaged over time as the crowd was led to the area where the line would be allowed to form. I know this because when we finally took a spot in line, there were many families that looked like me. Mothers and fathers, or grandparents, with little kids, strollers or wheelchairs… very few “teenagers/young adults” were near us in line. We were the ones that wouldn’t allow ourselves to get trampled for a spot at the front. I would be curious if someone took a sampling of age distribution for those lucky few that got wristbands, how many children under the age of 14 won the prize? How many families with strollers or wheelchairs made the cut? How many grandparents were able to see their grandkids meet the Jonas Brothers?
I stated previously that in a period of seven hours I saw the best and worst in people, and while I know my girls were really disappointed, they hugged and kissed me and thanked me for trying. They understood the sacrifice I made to drive six hours to get them there, take a day off, and get back to work on Wednesday just to give them a chance to meet the Jonas Brothers. To them, this was a huge gift in and of itself. They loved me for trying and that was the ultimate reward. They understood that we obeyed the rules and sometimes, even though the results weren’t what we had hoped for, we handled ourselves with integrity. This is a hard enough lesson to learn as an adult, and therefore carries so much more grace when little children express it.
I wrote this letter today because I want to encourage Disneyland to “care about the outcome.” In the case of the Jonas Brothers, Disney’s responsibility was to represent a franchise whose fan base is children and teenage girls. Equal accountability and respect to both audiences should have been foundational. I fully expect that another day will come when my girls again convince me to give a “meet and greet” another chance, and I hope that Disney can recall how good they are at crowd control and organization, and more importantly how committed they are to everyone leaving the “happiest place on earth” with nothing but good memories. Maybe it is selfish, but I want my experiences at Disneyland to be associated with the highs in life, not the lows.
I have faith that the Jonas Brothers want to hold their representatives to a higher standard. I have hope that Disney can redeem itself. Ultimately, it is faith and hope, not anger or frustration, which became the incentive for this letter of complaint.
What is a working mother’s lament regarding this book signing at Disneyland California Adventure?
I lament Disney’s lack of accountability to a positive outcome for all the kids and their families who showed up to support the JoBros. A positive outcome didn’t have to mean a wristband, as long as everyone could walk away knowing that the “highly coveted wristbands” were obtained fairly. Having to explain that we did everything right, but that unfortunately, this wasn’t the rewarded behavior is hard to do, especially when I know that Disney could have made a difference here if they had cared enough to do so.
Thank you for sharing your letter with MousePlanet. I’m sorry you had such a difficult time at the event. Please let us know if you hear anything back from Disneyland.
Readers: Do you have an experience about this event or another similar Disneyland event you’d like to share? A crazy pin release queue? Candlelight Processional madness? You can submit your letter to the mailbag (mailbag@mouseplanet.com), or join in the discussion on our MousePad message boards.
