DizBiz: What's The Buzz... Tell Me What's A Happenen

First published July 17, 2003

By C. W. Oberleitner

Thursday July 17, 2003 marks the 48th anniversary of the opening of Disneyland. On this day C. W. Oberleitner returns and concludes his series about the coming 50th Anniversary of Disneyland and what it means to people all over the world.

One of the nicest things about writing for JimHillMedia.com is all the reader mail you get. Feedback, even the critical stuff, is a wonderfully gratifying experience. Thanks to e-mail and the Internet I don't have to operate in a vacuum constantly wondering -- if as General Washington once asked the Continental Congress -- "Is anybody there? Does anybody care?"

Among my favorite questions are those that ask if I'm just not being dramatic for the sake of being dramatic. Still others go a little farther and suggest that I might be making mountains out of mole-hills in a deliberate attempt to promote some personal agenda that I would in someway benefit from.

Trust me, if you could see the mileage I've racked up on my car, the amount of money I've spent on park food and the hours of sleep I've lost gathering information and putting stories together that last item would be a real laugh.

Why then do I like this type of reader response so much? Because it tells me that what we, Jim, myself and the other writers here at JHM.com, are reaching out to an audience that goes beyond the "fan" community. This type of reader response tells me that we are talking about things that people want to know about. And, that we are doing it in a way that causes people to pause and think.

Not everyone may agree with me and frankly I think that's a good thing. People who think exactly like I do would make for a very small audience indeed. After all, I have that personal agenda of self-aggrandizement to think of.

So why do I spend so much time pondering about the comings and goings at the Disneyland Resort, especially the company's plans for the 50^th anniversary of Disneyland. As Sir Edmund Hiller said, "Because its there." Right there on the calendar, July 17, 2005 a landmark in our culture and our lives. An event to be observed and commemorated just as we observed and commemorated the 50^th anniversaries of the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Empire State Building, The Golden Gate Bridge and Disneyland are all remarkable examples of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity. The ESB and the GGB both stretched the boundaries of the engineering skills of their day. Both structures exceeded their designers' expectations. Both silenced the heckling of critics and naysayers alike and both came to find a place in the hearts and minds of generations of Americans.

Disneyland too had to overcome many obstacles before coming into existence. Even Walt Disney's own family were initially concerned that perhaps this time Walt might have bitten off more than he could chew and that his Disneyland might be more of an epitaph than a legacy. But it didn't turn out that way.

As some of our readers have said:

"It's not a property. It's not an amusement park. It's definitely not a mall… it is a cultural phenomenon and an American, if not worldwide tradition."

Disneyland is a long time family friend that is about to celebrate a really special birthday. And, everybody in the family wants to make sure that it's a celebration worthy of all the joy and wonder and magic that this beloved family friend has shared with us over the past five decades. That's why people want to know what's planned for the party.

I had been hoping that by the time this column appeared here on the site that we would know more about the plans for Disneyland's 50^th Anniversary celebration. Why? For one thing parades, events, rides and shows all take time to produce. It may be two full years to Disneyland's actual birthday, however, the company has already gone on record saying that it will be an eighteen month celebration beginning in 2004. That doesn't leave much time to move beyond planning to production.

Last April TDA (Team Disney Anaheim) executives said that the final plans for the 50^th Anniversary celebration would be announced at this year's annual Cast Blast, an employee appreciation event held each year for DLR cast members. That event came and went with little in the way of news of plans for the anniversary.

As MouseTales author and regular MousePlanet contributor David Koenig said;

It is sort of scary to learn that they still haven't made up their mind, until you realize the alternative: they could have given the current plans the go and we'd be locked into an extremely lukewarm 50th.

And an underwhelming set of celebratory events is just what even casual Disneyland fans fear most.

Wrong Before

A few weeks back I served up a portion of humble pie while writing about the events that took place at Disneyland the day of the Pirates of The Caribbean: Curse of The Black Pearl movie premiere. After learning that Disneyland would be closed at six pm the day of the premiere, a Saturday during the peak summer season, I postulated that trying to accommodate a crowd of guests that could easily reach 60,000 people and the premiere would be a nightmare of crowd control and extremely poor guest satisfaction.

I was wrong. There were problems that day and quite a few people did lodge complaints but overall the whole thing came off very well. To accomplish this, however, Disneyland had to take the unprecedented action of publicizing the cancellation of such popular events as the two daily parades, the evening fireworks show and the two daily performances of the very popular Fantasmic show. The result was one of the smallest summer Saturday crowds in the history of the park.

It was also one of the most expensive days, for the company, in the park's history. Hundreds of thousands was spent on extra staff and tens of thousands was lost on sales of food and merchandise. And that doesn't include all the money spent giving away free return admissions, assorted "comps" and the extra staff required for Disney's California Adventure.

The Pirates of The Caribbean movie premiere proves what The Walt Disney Company can do when it's willing to spend the money to do something right. Spending, however, does not appear to be part of the current known plans for the 50^th Anniversary celebration. The majority of the known plans for the anniversary are at best thought to be frugal.

Among the known plans are for a new fireworks show to replace the current "Believe There's Magic In The Stars" show which originally debuted as part of the 45^th anniversary celebration. The new show will have a new score and feature fireworks being set off all around Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. The drawback to this being, from a park guest perspective, the only way to see the entire show will be from the balcony of a Disneyland Resort hotel room.

There will be a 50^th Anniversary parade. This parade will replace the current "Parade of Stars" which also first appeared as part of the 45^th anniversary. The last word on the parade is that it will not be a new parade but rather a recycled version of the 100 Years of Magic parade from the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Orlando. That parade featured floats with Disney characters in giant snow globes. Real snow globes that replicated the floats were sold throughout Disney World. Similar snow globe merchandise is expected to be available throughout the Disneyland Resort.

There is also expected to be a museum of Disneyland history that will include models created by Walt Disney Imagineering of some of Disneyland's most famous attractions both past and present. Plans are to possibly house the museum in former Rocket Rods queue building, the Circlevision Theatre.

At one point it had been hopped that a Disneyland version of WDW's very popular Buzz Lightyear attraction might be installed in the Circlevision Theatre as part of the 50^th Anniversary celebration. As time passes without official word from TDA the prospect of Disneyland receiving a new attraction of any kind in time for the anniversary celebration seems to be increasingly remote.

Despite the fact that Disneyland will forever be the only Disney theme park Walt Disney ever set foot in there are no plans to return the exhibit of his private office to the lobby of the Main Street Opera House. The Opera house is home to the Walt Disney Story and Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln. Following Walt Disney's death the furnishings of his private and public offices were put on display in the lobby of this building. The private office furnishings were moved to Walt Disney World in 2000 as part of the 100 Years of Magic celebration. A "temporary" plywood wall with some early drawings of Disneyland was put up in place of the private office exhibit and remains there today.

Earlier plans for the 50^th Anniversary included completely remaking and updating five of Disneyland's classic attractions. Space Mountain, Small World, the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of The Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion were all going to receive extensive makeovers. Haunted Mansion was to add new elements to several rooms. The Jungle Cruise would have added elements of the WDW version of this Disneyland original attraction. POC would have rebuilt several scenes using the latest animatronic technology. And, Space Mountain was to receive a whole new track layout and theme.

Of these five attractions once planned for revamping only Space Mountain is still scheduled for some type of updating. Space Mountain, Tomorrowland and one of Disneyland's most popular attractions, was scheduled to close this coming September to begin it's reconstruction. It, however, closed suddenly on April 10, of this year when it was learned that continued maintenance of its aging track for the remainder of the 2003 summer season would be extremely costly and possibly require frequent closures for days at a time.

The plan to give Space Mountain a whole new track layout was abandoned. At this time the plan is to rebuild the original track exactly as it was prior to its untimely closure. There will be a new theme and queue area. Several ideas for the new theme have been discussed, including one that would feature space alien Stitch from his bad boy days in the far reaches of the galaxy.

The Downside of Corporate Responsibility

As underwhelming as many people find these plans and their related merchandising events to be I don't expect they will do much to dampen the public's enthusiasm for visiting Disneyland during the 50^th Anniversary celebration. On the contrary, I expect that during this time Disneyland will see record numbers of visitors.

When the Golden Gate Bridge turned 50 over two hundred thousand people showed up just to be able to walk across the bridge's roadway. It is human nature to want to be part of grand and momentous events. As the director of the Pirates of The Caribbean film, Gore Verbinski, said about the ride and the park that plays home to it, it is "ingrained in our collective psyche." And because of that when Disneyland turns 50 we are going to want to be there to be part of the celebration even if all we do is walk down Main Street en masse.

My fear is that the folks who are currently running The Walt Disney Company also realize that they won't have to spend a lot of money to attract visitors to The Disneyland Resort during the 50^th Anniversary celebration. And for that reason they will continue to tighten spending and reduce operational costs at Disneyland.

If this fear is realized large crowds will arrive at a Disneyland very much unlike the Disneyland most of us hold in our hearts. Granted nostalgia being what it is most of us have a propensity to recall things in their best light, however, Disneyland in its current condition is struggling to hold on to its reputation for wowing guests with innovative attractions and unprecedented levels of customer satisfaction. Don't take my word for it.

For sometime TDA and the management team of The Walt Disney Company in Burbank have dismissed criticism of the DLR resort by web journalists like myself as the ranting of a disillusioned minority of self obsessed individuals for whom nothing is ever quite what it should be. In fairness to these hard working folks I'm not Woodward or Bernstein and this isn't the Washington Post. I fully appreciate their need to get on with their jobs regardless of what I think about how they're doing them. But now there is something very critical being said about Disneyland and the Disneyland Resort that they should pay a great deal of attention too.

The June edition of Consumer Reports features a story on the best and worst theme parks in the country. What the CR reader survey -- of paying customers -- has to say about Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure will be much more difficult to dismiss than anything printed here. Disneyland, the flagship of Disney theme parks, came in behind Universal's Islands of Adventure, SeaWorld Orlando and San Diego and Disney's Animal Kingdom in overall satisfaction.

Many of the things CR's readers found wanting in Disneyland and DCA were exactly the same things unofficial Disney websites have been complaining about since the mid 90s. Ride closures, so-so value for money spent and large crowds milling about the park with fewer things to do and see are just a few of the criticisms held by both CR's respondents and on-line Disneyland observers.

In remarks made prior to the publication of Consumer Reports theme park story Walt Disney Company CEO Michael Eisner speaking before a group investment analysts repeated once again that the company had recently invested billions in its theme parks. He assured his audience that because of these investments once Americans began traveling again in large numbers Disney was well positioned to grow it's resort and theme park business. When asked about resort and park guest complaints about the lackluster nature of Disney's theme park and resort investments Eisner responded that they (Disney) would just have to educate the public.

As I said before, I have no doubt Disneyland will be visited by record numbers of guests during the eighteen months of its 50^th Anniversary celebration all eager to be part of a truly historic occasion. It is my sincere hope that the management of The Walt Disney Company will draw some inspiration from the following words and lavish as much attention on guests of Disneyland's 50^th Anniversary as they did on the celebrities who attended the Pirates of The Caribbean movie premiere:

To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past... and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America... with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.

C'ya real soon!