Disneyland Operations

Our trip to Disneyland last week coincided with the biggest crowds that the park has all year. In fact on the 27th the park hit capacity and no more tickets were sold after 11am. This means that there were roughly 85K people in the park. Now, I don't like crowds. I do not have claustrophobia, but I am not a fan of crowds. None the less, Disney did a fantastic job of handling the capacity crowds and making things fun and enjoyable.

Beyond the crowds I was amazed by a number of improvements that the park has made since the last time I was there in the mid 90s. Here are some interesting things that were new to me:

Fresh Fruit - For health conscious parents and for those of us who feel ill after eating too much fast food it was really great to see healthy snacks and fresh fruit stands in the park. Everything was still expensive, but it was nice to see that they were making efforts to provide healthy choices.

Stroller Parking - Since the last time I was there Disneyland has really made using the park with children a breeze. Strollers are readily available, and there are clear parking areas where they can be dropped off. It may be that I just didn't notice them before, but I noticed them this time for sure.

Fast Pass and Switch Passes - These handy innovations sure make it easy to keep the kids entertained while "waiting" for major rides. We were able to go on a lot more rides than I would have expected and we didn't have to spend all day in line with bored children.


Focus on live action/interactive - I was in awe of the ability and entertainment value of the many new live action, interactive skits on display around the park. At the Princess Fairy Tale area the staff pulls out all of the stops. The princess actresses address the children as "Princess/Prince" and constantly involve them in what is going on. The children become part of the action and you can see by their expressions that they eat it up.

Though the Princesses were cool, the Jedi Training was just plain awesome. If Ethan had been old enough I would have pushed him to participate. To be honest, if they allowed grown ups I would have been first in line. Basically what they do is dress up a bunch of kids like Jedis, give them plastic light sabers and provide them with fighting instructions. Then Darth Vader and Darth Maul make a dramatic entrance and the children get to face off with them. Vader "inspires" the "younglings" with well timed movie quotes and the improv actor Jedis crack jokes about the kids. Along the lines of "aim for Vader's head, we aren't fighting Ewoks" for the small kids, and for a particularly spastic kid, "your fighting style is unorthodox, but effective!" (You get the idea.)

One of the funniest things I saw was with Darth Maul. During the performance Darth Maul would walk the crowd wearing a scowl and intimidating the audience. During one of the performances there was this kid, probably about 10 year old, who was taunting Darth Maul from about 20 feet away. All of a sudden Darth Maul turns towards the kid and charges him, spinning his light saber as he rushed forward. At the very last second he stopped and got right in the kids face. The actor never cracked a smile, he was all intensity. (The yellow contacts made for a creepy effect.) The kid tried to back up but he was in the front of a large crowd so his terror was amplified by his inability to distance himself. It was clear that he was completely intimidated. It was hilarious!

Star Tours - As you may have already guested I am a fan of Star Wars. In the world of geeks you tend to have an allegiance to either Star Trek or Star Wars and I definitely fall in the Star Wars camp. That being said I used to love Star Tours and I was really looking forward to going on it again to see if it lived up to my memories. After all, the ride is like 17 years old now and I was really curious to see how it held up. Well, it is still great. There were a number of funny things that I had forgotten about the ride. Like when the kid uses the camera flash on Chewbacca in the instructional video before you get on the ride. Great stuff!

Anyhow, Disneyland really has risen above other parks I have been to and created a unique family environment. They know their business and they run it very, very well.