News
 

• Rode Tiana’s Bayou Adventure again on June 12. I like the ride a lot. Still having reliability issues.

• Jim, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has a little-known guide for measuring human stress, and it’s unofficially known as the “Butt Pucker” scale. The low end of the scale is for events such as running a few minutes late for work, and the high end of the scale is for things like in-flight announcements along the lines of “Does anyone know how to fly a plane?”
• With just 11 days until Tiana’s opens to guests, where on this Butt Pucker scale do you think park ops is right now?
  

• San Angel Inn dining room has reopened with a minor revamp. Long rows of tables replaced with waist-high walls to add a bit of personal privacy while dining. I’m personally happy that the people next to me won’t have to hear me try to trill my r’s when ordering food.
  
• Country Bear Jamboree re-opens July 17.
  
• In that same area, Disney’s filed a construction permit covering the old Pirate’s League makeover space in Adventureland, and that permit lasts through the end of September, 2025. Remember that Disney’s said this will become a pirate-themed bar. So this looks like the start of that.

• With the conversion of the Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade to DVC lounge, this side of the park is getting a TON of attention.
  

• Today’s the last day of operations for Test Track in its version 2.0 form.

Surveys

Last  month we went over a Disney survey that asked folks why they didn’t eat at a sit-down restaurant. And in the last couple of weeks we’ve heard that some popular restaurants were running at around 60% of capacity, sometimes less. I think we posted a photo of Restaurant Akershus at dinner one day last week, Jim, and there were only two other families in our area.

Jim, we heard from dozens of listeners about why they’re not booking sit-down dining reservations.

Veronica said this:

We noticed on our one day Epcot trip in February (granted, during the Princess Half-Marathon Weekend) that we couldn't mobile order lunch ANYWHERE unless we had put in the order at like 9 or 10 AM, when we looked at 1130 there were no pick up times earlier than like 230.  But we were able to find a table of 4 in the late lunch/early dinner (2 or 3 PM) at Le Cellier.

Two: At least in MK, the VQ for Tron has a hard limit for return.  So if you book an ADR and your VQ is called, you have to prioritize the VQ.

Three:  Inflation is ugh.  We traveled the same week this year as last year, our airfare for 4 people is what we paid for 6 people last year.  That extra money has to come from somewhere, and it's probably coming from the dining budget.

Len says: The conflict with VQs/ILLs/G+ is a common theme.

We ran an Instagram poll asking folks why they’re skipping table service meals. And Veronica’s email covers most of the 230+ responses we got:

• Half of respondents said sit-down meals are too expensive
• 28% said they’re already spending more on Genie+, tickets, and hotels (so a re-allocation of money)
• 13% said it wasn’t worth it

• A lot of people said it wasn’t just the cost, or the quality of the food. It was the overall cost-benefit analysis of it taking more than an hour from your day in the park, plus the cost, plus the quality.

A couple of folks disliked the fixed-price menus, saying things like “It’s tough to see that you’re going to spend $150 to $180 for two people before you even sit down.”

Brian Levine added this:

For years I’ve been telling people to do their big meal in the parks as a sit down late lunch.  This gets you a good midday break and out of the heat for an hour or two.  Do a quick service in the evening and stay as late as possible to get the lower ride times. It could be what Disney is seeing now with all the dinner time availability.

Listener Emails

Jim, an interesting email from Kelly after visiting Disneyland recently:

I was at Disneyland a week ago and noticed that they had changed the narration for the Mark Twain. It was actually kind of nice, they have started naming the Native American tribes specifically - not as a monolith - and describing the kinds of stories they might tell.  "This the Hopi tribe and they like to tell..." That sort of thing.

But there is also a bit of narration about the goings-on on that mountain (the artist formerly known as Splash) over there.  The narration says specifically to come back in December to join the party.

So I wonder if the Tiana's opening date for California is MUCH further out than we thought?

Also, I found it really interesting that the new narration, which begins after you hear part of Dr. John playing "Down in New Orleans," seems to very much suggest that the boat - once the weenie of Frontierland - is actually a part of New Orleans Square now. That's a heck of a land grab! If New Orleans Square now extends from the port of the Rivers of America all the way to the Winnie-the-Pooh ride (which is not long for this world, itself, I think), does it go from being the smallest land in Disneyland to the largest?

Len says: The observation about Native American tribes is interesting.

Disneyland’s park map still shows the Mark Twain as in Frontierland. And so to see if it makes sense that a song about New Orleans belongs in Frontierland, we have to look at the time range in which Disneyland’s Frontierland lives.

We know the American Frontier was closed by 1890 - the US Census said so in 1895. So the end date for Frontierland is 1895. What’s the beginning date of Frontierland, and is it early enough that “New Orleans” could be considered part of the frontier?

You could make an argument that New Orleans was part of the American Frontier in 1820: The Mississippi forms the western border of Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois. All of these were states in 1820, and they were the western-most states in the US at that time - to the west of the Mississippi were the territories of Arkansas and Missouri (which later became a whole bunch of states).

I think Iowa was the last of the lands bordering the Mississippi to become a state, in 1846.

So riverboats and New Orleans were still plausibly part of the American “frontier” up to 1845. That fits within Disneyland’s Frontierland timeline.

Lance Phegely (FEG-lee) has this question about masking tape in the parks:

My wife, myself and our son are at WDW this week celebrating her birthday. Have a question about the parks and bet you're the person who knows the answer.

As we all know, before parades and fireworks shows, cast members tape off areas where people can/cannot stand. I have two questions for you:

How many miles of tape does WDW use on an annual basis?

How do castmembers get the tape down on the ground in such straight lines? Is there some type of training for this?

Thanks - love the podcast, Unpacked and everything else!

Len says: The MK parade route is probably right at half a mile in distance. Here’s an estimate from Google Maps that doesn’t follow every curve, bend, or nook in the route, and it’s right at 2,500 feet, with 2,640 feet half a mile. And remember, that’s one length of tape, but you need at least two - one for each side of the parade route.

So let’s say that each MK parade takes a mile of masking tape for each performance.

There are times when the MK runs two afternoon parades per day. And there’s probably days where the parade can’t run because of weather. So let’s say it averages out to one parade every day. That’s 365 days of parades, or roughly 365 miles of tape - at least!

Let’s say the average roll of masking tape is 180 feet long. That works out to 10,700 rolls of masking tape per year. And I’m sure it’s more than that.

As to how the lines are so straight, I asked a parade CM this exact question. They said that if they can use an already-existing line, like a sidewalk curb, as a guide, that helps. And they said there are some fairly straight cracks in the asphalt in places that they also use for guides. But everywhere else it’s just eyeballing. And Jim, I think that’s a skill that I didn’t know people could possess until now.

Research/Patents (use query "disney enterprises".as AND "theme park".ab)

Fireworks at Disneyland – Part Three

Last week’s show … We finished up by talking about a maturing Disneyland. To be specific, how the area beyond the berm (to the Park’s west & north) began developing into a residential area.

FYI: To the east & the south is where we find the corner of Harbor & Katella. Which is Disneyland’s commercial component is located (those quick service restaurants which catered to the tens of thousands of Guests who visited the Park daily. Likewise the dozens of hotels & motels that gave these same people a place to stay).

This stuff developed here – rather than to Disneyland’s west & north – because of this area’s close proximity to the 5. And now you know.

Now on a parallel track, over this same period of time (we’re talking late 1950s – early 1960s), the pyro program at Disneyland is becoming far more robust & sophisticated. No longer just an add-on to the Park’s “Date Nite at Disneyland” promotion. Fireworks at the Park really came into its own in the Summer of 1961.

That’s when – as part of “Fantasy in the Sky” – Tinkerbell began sliding down a cable from the top of the Matterhorn over Sleeping Beauty Castle. People loved this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment so much that … Well, Disneyland’s fireworks display went from being this thing that was only presented on weekend nights during the Late Spring & most of the Summer months to something that was presented all Summer long and then – starting the Fall of 1961 – every weekend night.

Which was not what the folks who’d bought homes over on Walnut & Ball had signed on for. I mean, there are people living in this part of Anaheim who owned houses that were built on streets with names like Castle Avenue & Magic Way Villas. So they obviously knew that they were buying a home that was close to the world famous Disneyland.

But to have to go from a  situation where its “Yeah, they shoot off fireworks on Friday, Saturday & Sunday nights during the Summer. But it only lasts for 10 minutes. And they’re pretty. You can watch them from your backyard. You’ll learn to love them” to now … Well, this is something that happens more than a hundred times a year. That’s a lot to ask.

Especially when your home is downwind of Disneyland Park. And when you go out to your car to go to work in the morning, you find the paper wrapping of spent firework shells on your lawn. Not to mention the paint of the hood & the roof of your car becoming discolored. Or – worse – bubbling.

This is the part of pyrotechnics that I think a lot of folks don’t want to hear about. How it takes a combination of corrosive chemicals to send those colorful shells rocketing high in the sky. And how – once those fireworks explode … Well, those same chemicals then come raining down out of the sky as particulate material.

Just to be clear here: Disneyland was proactive when it came to this matter. When people to the West & the North of the Park began complaining about … Well, the noise & the fall-out in the 1960s, Walt Disney Productions did step up. They reached out to homeowners in the local community and did things like offering to install sound proofing for free at their houses. Likewise double pane glass to reduce noise levels. And if the paint on someone’s car began to peel in the neighborhood directly behind Disneyland, the Park would then offer to cover the cost of sending that same vehicle over to Earl Scheib (a company that specialized in low-cost repainting of cars) no questions asked.

Also worth noting here that a lot of the folks who actually owned these homes were Disneyland employees. They’d purchased these houses because they wanted to be close to work. Avoid – what’s that joke from the Jungle Cruise? -- “The most dangerous part of our journey? The return to civilization and those California freeways.”

And – of course – those folks aren’t going to bite the three-fingered / white glove-covered hand that feeds them. So if things get a little noisy at night / fireworks tubes land on their roof, these Disneyland employees aren’t going to complain. Much, I mean.

Mind you, what helped mitigate this situation was that packet of free passes that Disneyland would send annually to the folks who lived in the neighborhoods closest to the Park. As if to say “We appreciate what you’re putting up with here. And we’re trying to be a good neighbor.”

Where this got complicated was … Well, as the 1960s gave way to the 1970s, the cost of homes that had been built next to Disneyland rapidly began to rise. Which meant that fewer & fewer Cast Members could then afford to live there. And these new homeowners were that much more vocal when it came to the noise issues associated with the Park. Not to mention that particulate material that kept falling out of the sky every night.

What really didn’t help the Mouse is the Clean Air Act. Which the Federal Government first wrote into law back in 1963 in an attempt to reduce and control air pollution nationwide. Initially, this law was largely for show. But every few years, it would get amended:

•        There was the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Act of 1965

•        Not to mention the Air Quality Act of 1967

•        And the Clean Air amendments of 1970 & 1977

And with each amendment, the Clean Air Act got a few more teeth / some steeper penalties. More to the point, it became harder & harder for Disneyland management to ignore.

In this same window of time … Bob Jani (the guy who’d replaced Tommy Walker as the head of Entertainment at Disneyland Park) convinced Disney’s board of directors that … Well, since all of these Clean Air-related regulations were becoming harder & harder for the Park’s pyro team (Who – let’s remember – were still contractees at this point. They all worked for Bernard Wells’ company, California Fireworks) to work around, it was now time for the Company to take control of the Company’s pyrotechnic needs and bring that operation in house.

This, they did in 1976. Just ahead of America’s bicentennial. Which – as you might imagine – featured some truly over-the-top fireworks displays at Disneyland Park in Anaheim as well as down at Walt Disney World in Florida.

Len & I have previously done a show about what Disney World’s three-day-long Fourth of July celebration was like back in 1976. It featured a simultaneous pyro display over the Magic Kingdom theme park as well as out over Seven Seas Lagoon.

And speaking of fireworks displays over Seven Seas Lagoon, Harold “Mickey” Aronson (who we discussed on last week’s show. He was the longtime California Fireworks employee who’d eventually leave that firm to become the head of Disneyland’s fireworks display when the Company decided to bring these operations in house) liked to tell the story of the phone call he got from Dick Nunis late in September of 1971.

Nunis explained to Aronson that – as part of the grand opening of the Walt Disney World Resort – there was supposed to be this luau down by the edge of Seven Seas Lagoon. The Guests & celebrities who were taking part in the Resort’s grand opening would be treated to this Polynesian-themed banquet. Then there’d be entertainment followed by the world premiere of the Electrical Water Pageant. And what Dick was now hoping for was … Well, this party down by the water would then be capped off by a lavish fireworks display up over Seven Seas Lagoon.

Anyway … Nunis wanted Aronson to fly down to Florida a day or so before Walt Disney World’s grand opening celebration and then personally supervised this fireworks display. And since Dick was the big boss of the Disney Parks at the time, Mickey – of course – said “Yes.”

So Aronson flies down to Orlando on October 23rd, the day before this party. Only to find that – while the fireworks shells that he needs to present this show have (thankfully) been sent out from California – nothing else has been done to prep for this show.

Which is why Mickey – who’s fresh off the plane, mind you – races to a Central Florida hardware store (just before they close for the day) and frantically starts buying all of this plywood, wire, and plastic tubing.

He then works through the night to transform the site where Disney’s Asian Resort was supposed to be built (This idea for a Monorail Resort was eventually abandoned in 1973 just prior to the start of construction. It was one of many projects proposed for the Resort that got cancelled in the wake of the Arab Oil Embargo of the early 1970s. That said, the Grand Floridian Beach Resort would be built on this very same spot in the mid-1980s).

Anyway … Working through the night, Mickey transforms this spit of land along Seven Seas Lagoon into a makeshift fireworks launch site. He then loads all of the launch tubes by hand. And then – at the crucial moment that night (right after the Electrical Water Pageant finishes its performance) – Aronson (using a 12-volt battery and a nail) begins launching this pyro display.

The crowd (a hundred yards or so down the beach) all look towards the sky and “Oohs” & “Aahs.” This pyro display is an enormous success, the perfect cap to the Polynesian Resort’s opening night party. And as soon as this fireworks display is over, Mickey goes over to the Poly and finally checks into his room. Where he then sleeps for the next two days and misses the rest of Disney World’s grand opening celebration.

Back now to Disneyland in the late 1970s and the Clean Air Act … What’s especially concerning the folks in Anaheim & Burbank is that … Well,  the State of California is now making noise about creating its own legislation in regards to air quality standards. One that would be far stricter than the legislation at the federal level.

The thinking now is … Given that Disneyland’s fireworks displays are now an inextricable part of the overall Park experience (People who visit Disneyland now expect to see a fireworks display over Sleeping Beauty Castle as part of their visit to that theme park. If they don’t get it, they then walk away from Walt’s family fun park disappointed), looking ahead here … Given that the neighborhood behind the Park is now filled with increasingly vocal people complaining about the noise & the stuff that’s falling down nightly out of the sky AND the State of California is about to institute far tougher regulations when it comes to things like particulate material … What’s the Mouse to do?

Fourth & final installment of this series … We’ll get to what Disney did. Which involves things like using compressed air – rather than black power – to launch these fireworks shells high in the sky. Not to mention drones & projection shows.

Promise that this series will end with a bang.