Some months
back, a “Disneyland Update” on MousePlanet broke the news about Disneyland
toning down the Mad Tea Party. Gradually, everyone from the Los Angeles Times
to People magazine picked up the story. Naturally, several MP readers,
who helped fuel the coverage, wanted to know why we didn’t run regular updates
on the controversy.
For one thing, there was little to update. Disneyland
refused to acknowledge there was a problem; they figured their stonewalling would
help the hoopla to eventually die down.
For another, I personally am able
to write only about one story a month for MousePlanet, which makes it difficult
to keep on top of the all the Magic Kingdom’s countless mini-melodramas. With
that in mind, I thought it might be useful to occasionally look back and catch
up on some of the unfinished business discussed in past articles over the last
four years.
Olive trees and decorations
“The
Central Plaza Opens” in the March 29, 2004 Disneyland Update noted
the removal of the Hub’s eight 125-year-old olive trees to allow a better view
of Sleeping Beauty Castle for the 50th anniversary celebration.
Two of
the trees were relocated to other areas of the park, two were transplanted to
Imagineer Tony Baxter’s house, and the rest ended up as mulch.
As for “decorating”
the castle, on Friday June 4, Imagineering began experimenting. The castle’s west-most
tower was topped with a jeweled gold crown and painted in bright colors.
“WDI
[Walt Disney Imagineering] was conducting a test to see how the castle would look
with the new elements for the 50th anniversary,” said one eyewitness. “It
was only visible if you were on the west path from Plaza Gardens to the Castle.
I thought it was tacky. The extremely bright colors—bright pinks, blues,
lots of gold—reminded some of the birthday cake castle at WDW (for the Magic
Kingdom’s 25th anniversary). Some Imagineers were heard to say that they wanted
to paint the bricks on the lower half of the Castle gold. The majority of the
comments I heard were negative.”
One onlooker reportedly said it would
make the castle look like a “cheaply made toy.” Another thought it lacked
the class and dignity deserving of such a milestone.
Rafts to Tom Sawyer
Island
“News
from the Frontier” in the January 19, 2004 Disneyland Update mentioned
that Attractions was considering running the rafts to Tom Sawyer Island with a
single operator, as is done at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.
On Memorial
Day weekend, Disneyland officially switched to the one-man raft operation. “All
the raft ride operators were retrained, and they do not like it,” said a
source. “Despite the heavier workloadÑthey have to load and unload the guests,
watch for river traffic, and secure the ‘new’ safety features on the rafts, Attractions
management bowed down to Matt Ouimet’s insistence to run the attraction ‘like
Walt Disney World.’ The cast members feel that they are compromising safety and
efficiency to save a buck. But the most stupid thing is that the attendance per
hour has dropped sharply. This does not make sense when everything is dictated
by the spin of a turnstile.”
The change typifies the resort’s current
catch phrase: “global utilization.” He explained, “There is a push
to have all operations procedures to run the parks to be identical to that of
Walt Disney World. It does not matter that some things are uniquely different
in each park, corporate wants everything to be the same.”
A future
article will follow on the good and the bad of “forcing” WDW’s procedures
on Disneyland.
Tom Sawyer Island
“Tom
Smaller Island” (August 13, 2002) detailed the safety-proofing of
Tom Sawyer Island, including the possible dismantling of the decrepit Fort Wilderness.
The fort remains, but continues to show its age. “Fort Wilderness
is going to rot away,” shared one cast member. “In order to save money,
Attractions has pawned off the Island. It is no longer considered an ‘attraction.’
The rafts are, but not the Island. It has been reclassified as a walkway, or like
a planter in the Hub. Plans to have the Fort rebuilt have evaporated, and there
is no hope, unless guests speak up.”
Universal Studios Hollywood
“Winding
Down the West” (December 20, 2001) announced the closure of Universal
Studios Hollywood’s famous Wild West stunt show. USH swore the downtime was just
temporary; my sources were doubtful.
Fast forward to today. According to
a USH insider, “Sadly, the theater is still empty, with no plans to reopen
(strictly economics in keeping shows out of it). The line employees are told that
the theater is closed because of termite damage, but it is actually a steel and
stucco structure, and perfectly safe. Some of the stuntmen from the show now work
the cowboy stunt show down at Knott’s. Three of the stuntmen were in the recent
History Channel series Wild West Tech.”
Adventureland in Walt Disney
World
“Adventureland Is OPEN”
(September 7, 2001) and “Adventureland Is CLOSED”
(August 24, 2001) exposed Walt Disney World’s plan to open the Magic Kingdom’s
Adventureland an hour after the rest of the park. Two weeks later, WDW changed
its mind.
Three years later, WDW changed its mind again. This spring, Adventureland
finally began having later 10 a.m. openings.
Closing the parks
“Dark
Days Ahead?” (August 3, 2001) evaluated management’s proposal to
close down the parks one or two days a week during the off-season.
Instead,
management decided to turn up the discounts. Attendance is recovering, but a month
ago the company decided to lock the gates at Disneyland for a single day–May
4, 2005, the day before the 50th anniversary festivities kick off.
When
I first filled in a park manager on the proposal, he scoffed. Certainly any final
preparations could be done in off-hours, he reasoned. Well, Disney has since announced
the one-day closure.
My guess, it’s as much a publicity stunt as anything
else. It will be Disneyland’s first scheduled day off in roughly 30 years.
Finally,
a bit of sad news. Recently, Disneyland lost two popular old-timers. Anne Salisbury,
the “Flower Lady,” who spent years peddling plastic flowers on Center
Street and was an original member of the Golden Ears retiree club, died May 11.
Rick
Sowder, who worked at the park from 1955 to 1965, passed away April 27 at age
72.
And now about those Tea Cups…
