News

• Reopenings

• Disney's All-Star Music Resort for arrivals beginning September 16 2021
• Disney's Port Orleans Resort – Riverside for arrivals beginning October 14 2021
• Disney's Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter for arrivals beginning October 28 2021
• Disney’'s All-Star Sports Resort for arrivals beginning December 9 2021
• Poly (July 19)
• AKL (August 26)
  

• More Boo Bash dates have sold out:

• August 10, 17; September 14; October 5, 8, 10, 12, 15, 26, 29, 31 2021.

Len in the parks over the last week:

• Thanks to all the listeners who said hi
• Happily Ever After on July 1
• Rise of the Resistance
• VIP tour (Jimmy!)

• 16 attractions in 7 hours, plus lunch and a ride back to the hotel
  

• It was difficult to get food in the Magic Kingdom after 7 pm

• Return windows at GF and MK were all 30 to 60 minutes out

• Skyliner line went back to Stormalong Bay one night, so that was a hassle
• Tickets never worked right

• 4 phone calls that took almost 3 hours
• 2 visits to Guest Relations
• 2 at-the-tapstile fixes
• 1 “I’m just going to trust you” at the Magic Kingdom

• Survey question: How much do you spend on vacations per year?

• < $1,000
• $1,001 to
• $5,000 to $10,000
• $10,000 to $15,000
• $15,000 to $20,000
• $20,000 or more

Surveys

Listener Questions

From Christi:

Do you have any idea if or when the parking lot trams will be in operation again, or is Disney just hoping that we’ll forget about that?

I’m also curious about package pickup. Do you think that will return in any form? Some of these helpful services make a very positive impact on the guest, and I’ve been missing a lot of those smaller things that make Disney so magical.

I think they’ll both be back by the end of the year.  I think both of those are related to staffing. With all of the resorts opening up by the end of the year, the number of people who can’t make the walk from their car to the entrance will increase, and Disney’s going to need to start operating trams.  We’re getting more mentions of this in our reader surveys, too, so we know Disney’s seeing it as well.

From Jason:

My family is planning a trip to Walt Disney World for late April 2022 and I have a question regarding hotels. My wife is currently expecting our third child at the end of January, so this will be our first trip as a family of five. We’ll also have our 4-year old son, 2-year old daughter, and the 3 month old.

My wife was thinking about a family suite at Art of Animation for the space and since my son is a big fan of all things Cars, especially after having seen the resort when we stayed at Pop Century.

I don't disagree, but I was trying to see if there were any alternatives to Art of Animation. We did enjoy SkyLiner access and I wasn't sure about how spacious a standard 5th sleeper room at Caribbean Beach in the Aruba section would be, given that it would be several hundred dollars cheaper per night. That way we could still take advantage of the SkyLiner and the food and beverage options via a walk to the Riviera. The only downside I could think of other than room space would be the bus transportation to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom from Caribbean Beach.

A dark horse option for me would be a suite at the new Swan Reserve? Price wise it would be comparable to Art of Animation, plus the general location is better by Crescent Lake and I would have Gold status with Marriott BonVoy. With Magical Express going away in 2022, I can't think of the downside here vs. a Disney resort other than the Disney theming not being present. Would love to hear your thoughts!

Len:

Cars Suite $2,945, has 2 bathrooms, is around 565 square feet.  Comes with the Skyliner.

Swan Reserve has a resort fee that works out to just over $37 per day, so factor that into the cost.

610 square feet, 2 queen beds, sofa bed, plus a crib, so everyone gets their own bed.

$3,026 with tax for late April 2022.  But if you can get most of that on points, then I’d put up with one bathroom and a walk to EPCOT and DHS for a couple thousand dollars, you know?  You’ll still get early theme park entry.

Caribbean Beach rooms are 314 square feet, so about half the size of the Swan Reserve.  2 queen beds and a crib, so the older kids share a bed.  $1,676, so just a little more than half the cost of the Swan Reserve.  There’s 5 of you, and so that works out to around 63 square feet per person. Remember, Jason, they give you 60 square feet per person in prison, so this isn’t much more than that.

From Greg:

I finished up this week’s Disney Dish episode where you and Jim gave your take on both the Contemporary renovations and the exclusive after hours for deluxe guests.  It sure seems like either the Disney execs have lost their way or their backbones.

Grand Flordian, Polynesian, and Contemporary are IP in their own right; they don’t need strong character overlays.  In fact, strong character overlays diminish the IP value of each of these hotels by making them just another character that happens to be a hotel.

Contemporary as TWA Hotel – Yes!  Swap the monorail “Highway in the Sky” for the plane motif and you have your theme.  There’s a monorail going through the middle of the building for crying out loud, that’s what a mid-century modern future looks like.

Look at the Top of the World Lounge styling and use that as inspiration for updating The Wave.  If they need a new monosyllable name, how about The Beam?

Len: Greg, it’d be “The Beam: Steaks, Seafood, and Pasta” because Disney puts the entire menu in the restaurant name now.

Look to the mural for color palates and use those in the rooms.  Who doesn’t like a turquoise chair?

Due to their proximity to MK, BLT & the Contemporary are still in the best location for families with strollers; why isn’t the kids pool on par with the Polynesian’s?  That’s tragic.

This isn’t a screed by any stretch; my home resort is BLT so I’m going back no matter what.  This is only an observation of a missed opportunity by Disney to really differentiate their hotels and make a statement to their guests.  What they’re doing is akin to wearing khaki pants to a suburban bar-b-que.  Forgettable.  Given the cycle for how long it takes to refresh hard and soft fixtures, Disney is going to be stuck with mediocrity for a long time to come.

Regarding the extra magic hours, I think they are hurting themselves.  Even Disney’s Value resorts aren’t “cheap” compared to regular hotels.  I understand that Disney wants to give a better experience to people shelling out $600+ per night vs. $200, but having a class system in the parks is not the way to do it.  I worry that long term a generation of parents will be priced out of a Disney vacation and their kids won’t have the same nostalgic tie to the parks.  As a shareholder, that’s worrying.

Best regards, Greg

From Adam:

A couple of weeks ago, you jokingly mentioned one of Jim's trite sayings that you were looking to put on a t-shirt. Over the past several months as I listen to the podcast, I've been compiling a list on my phone of certain words and phrases that Jim uses repeatedly in hopes of creating a special Disney Dish drinking game (coffee, of course, it's a family show). I challenge you every time you hear one of these words or phrases, take a swig of your favorite caffeinated beverage:

"More to the point..."

"The interesting thing is..."

"That's it exactly, Len!"

"...rides, shows, and attractions..."

Diabetes

"There you go!"

"You can send those [checks/letters] to Len Testa."

"Speaking of that..."

"This is the thing..."

"...literally..."

"...our 'buddy' Bioreconstruct."

and finally...

to understand [some recent ride, show, or attraction], you have to go back to [any date before 1950]

Disney patents

Disney Dish Feature Piece for Second Week of July 2021

Disneyland Floral Mickey

According to Kodak (circa 1985. Disneyland’s 30th anniversary), it is one of the most photographed things in the world. Only the Taj Mahal & the Eiffel Tower get more pictures taken on them annually.

It is the Floral Mickey in front of the Main Street Train Station at Disneyland Park. Tourists -- as they enter that family fun park -- typically get in line as soon as they come through the turnstiles. Just so they can then get that “We were there” shot (Especially these days, in our “if-you-don’t-have-pics-it-didn’t-happen” age).

Given how many people get their pictures taken in front of the Floral Mickey, the Horticulture and Resort Enchancement Team at Disneyland Park make sure that they always keep it looking its best. This typically involves replanting the Floral Mickey 9 times a year. A process that is typically done on third shift so that Mickey always looks his best whenever Guests show up at the Park.

Now keep in mind that -- every time that Floral Mickey gets replanted … Well, between the floral filigrees & flourishes off to the side of Mickey’s face and the annuals that need to be replaced within the actual borders of his massive mouse face, you’re typically talking 9,000 flowers.

To put that in perspective: Every year, the horticultural department at Disneyland Park -- in order to maintain that theme park’s 7 total acres of annual beds -- has to bring a million flowers in from outside greenhouses. And almost a tenth of those annuals this family fun park buys annually are used just to keep that Floral Mickey looking sharp.

The real irony here … Were we to jump back some 66 years to less than 6 days before Disneyland Park first opened to the public, the Floral Mickey had yet to be planted.

Which genuinely concerned Joe Fowler. Who was the Park Construction Administrator for Walt’s family fun park. Which is why -- on July 11, 1955 -- Joe sent a memo to Jack Evans (who -- along with his brother Morgan “Bill” Evans -- was handling a lot of Disneyland’s horticultural aspects). That memo read:

“When are you going to plant Mickey Mouse in the entrance? Looks to me like the time is getting pretty late.”

Why was this part of the Disneyland project (Which was so dear to Walt’s heart. As far back as 1953 .. Which was when Disneylandia was supposed to be built on the other side of Riverside Drive, just across from the Disney Lot in Burbank, the front entrance of Walt’s family fun park was supposed to have had a Floral Mickey. To Walt’s way of thinking, this floral element was the equivalent of that pie-eyed Mickey you saw surrounded by a sunburst at the start of every technicolor Mickey Mouse cartoon from the 1930s. It was a Disney-specific way of saying “Welcome! You’re in for a good time today”)

Anyway … Why was this part of the Disneyland project not started ‘til the very last minute. Well, there are a couple of reasons.

    • Money got very, very tight towards the end of Disneyland’s construction. And one of the areas that got really impacted by this ever-tightening budget was the horticultural aspects of this project. At the 10th anniversary party for Disneyland, Walt told the story about how -- when money ran out to landscape large sections of Tomorrowland -- Bill Evans just had signs & labels made up for the weeds that grew naturally at the construction site. Bill had these signs made up with the full Latin names of each of these weeds. So that -- when Guests looked at them -- they’d then think “Oh, these plants must have been deliberately planted like that. What an unusual idea.”

But there was another key reason that the Floral Mickey hadn’t been planted in front of the Main Street Train Station by July 11, 1955 (Which -- again -- was just 6 days before the big live broadcast on ABC of “Dateline Disneyland.” That 90-minute-long TV special which was supposed to showcase Walt’s $17 million family fun park in all its glory). And it’s something that The Walt Disney Company really doesn’t like to talk about. Which is the turf war that broke out at the Disneyland construction site in Anaheim in the Spring of 1955 when it came to who would decide what would get planted where at Walt’s family fun park.

To understand what happened here … We have to go back to 1949. Which is when Walt purchased a lot on Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. It was here that Disney would build his 1/8th scale Carolwood Pacific Railway (which included a 90-foot-long stretch of tunnel that took Walt’s guests under his wife Lily’s flowerbeds).

Anyway … Because Lillian insisted that -- to avoid annoying their new neighbors in Holmby Hills -- Walt had to hide as much of his backyard steam train set-up away from prying eyes as possible -- he then hired the Evans & Reeves nursery in West Los Angeles to landscape his property. And Walt was supposedly so pleased with the work that Bill Evans and his brother Jack had done that -- when the Disneyland project finally got funded in 1954 -- Disney reached out to the Evans again and invited them to come on out to Anaheim and turn 160 acres of what used to be orange groves & walnut trees into …Well, a highly themed, beautifully landscaped family fun park.

The only problem here was … Well, the Evans weren’t professionally trained landscapers. Bill had gone to Stanford University in the 1920s to study engineering. More to the point, while they had done plantings at the homes of some of the biggest stars in Hollywood -- Greta Garbo, Clark Gable & Elizabeth Taylor among them -- Bill & Jack had never done anything of this size before. I mean, this wasn’t going to be some sort of elaborate backyard garden at a private home. Disneyland was going to be this vast commercial enterprise that thousands of people would enter every day. The daily wear & tear on this family fun park’s ornamental trees & flower beds was going to be extraordinary.

Finally realizing that -- while Walt obviously personally liked Bill & Jack -- the Evans were kind of in over their heads when it came to the Disneyland project … Walt then reached to Walter Becket (the architect that Disney had originally consulted when he was first thinking of building Disneylandia). This was the late Winter / early Spring of 1955 (roughly 5 months out from the grand opening of Disneyland)  and asked if Beckett had a landscape architect that he could recommend. Someone who had enough professional experience to tackle a horticultural project of this size.

Walter immediately recommended Ruth Shellhorn. Shellhorn was a Los Angeles native who had attended Oregon State University’s School of Landscape Architecture before she then continued with her studies at Cornell.  In the early 1950s, Ruth had been the landscape architect for a string of Bullock’s shopping plazas, where she combined elements of park planning with the suburban mall.  In short, Shellhorn had done projects of size before like Disneyland Park which had to accommodate the movement of thousands of people every day.

Given that there was something of a ticking clock here (More importantly, given that it was absolutely crucial that Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise ride be surrounded by this deep, thick, totally authentic-looking forest full of exotic plants when this Adventureland attraction opened in July of 1955), a command decision was made:

Ruth would concentrate on completing Disneyland’s entrance (which obviously included that Floral Mickey), Main Street U.S.A., the area around the Hub and Sleeping Beauty Castle as well as the entrance to Tomorrowland. Bill & Jack will then concentrate on completing Adventureland’s Jungle Cruise as well as the planting which was already underway in & around Frontierland.

The problem here was … Well, Ruth Shellhorn was a late arrival to the Disneyland Project. More to the point, she was a professional when it came to the world of landscape architecture. Which is why -- Shellhorn handed down orders out in the field to the guys who were driving the bulldozers around that Anaheim construction site -- Ruth then expected those orders to be followed.

Now the onsite construction team … They’d been following the order of the Evans up until this time. And then suddenly there was this new woman there asking them to regrade things that had supposedly been completed weeks earlier. And -- as a direct result -- there was a certain amount of carping & complaining coming from the Disneyland construction team. And initially things didn’t get done as quickly as Shellhorn would have liked.

So Ruth went to Walt and then Walt lowered the boom at the Disneyland construction site. He made it exceedingly clear that -- from here-on in -- Shellhorn’s orders while she was out on the field were to be followed to the letter. Because it was crucial that Disneyland Park make its previously announced July 17th opening date.

The problem was -- as Disneyland’s opening date kept getting closer & closer and the budget for this ambitious project got tighter & tighter -- Ruth’s follow-my-orders-precisely attitude began to butt heads with Walt’s far more casual attitude. After all, Disney had dreamed up this whole project. And when he was at the construction site and see something that he didn’t like, Walt would then ask workers in the field to pull up survey stakes and shift a walkway 10 feet to the left. Or ask for a tree to be ripped out so that it then wouldn’t block the view of Sleeping Beauty Castle.

This often put Ruth Shellhorn at odds with Walt. I mean, Shellhorn understood that -- in the end -- it’s the client’s wishes that need to be followed. But so many of these sorts of decisions -- especially during the final weeks of construction on Disneyland -- were made on the fly out in the field. With Ruth learning well after the fact. Which then meant that she needed to adjust all of her carefully crafted landscaping plans for this family fun park at the very last minute. Which was aggravating & stressful.

On the other hand, the Evans -- who were already familiar with Walt’s ways after having landscaped the Disney family home in Holmby Hills in late 1949 / early 1950 -- just rolled with the punches. Whatever Walt asked them to do at the Disneyland construction site, Bill & Jack did -- no questions asked.

Mind you, when the Evans missed deadlines (They spent so much time concentrating on making Adventureland look like the best jungle north of Costa Rica that Bill & Jack neglected Frontierland), Shellhorn picked up the slack. In the final ten days of construction, she created landscapes designs for three different areas in Frontierland. Ruth even got down in the dirt herself to help with the planting of seedlings.

Shellhorn’s very hands-on attitude even extended to Disneyland’s Floral Mickey. Ruth had put a lot of advance thought into this project. She’d put together a palette of bright seasonal annuals that would then really make this massive mouse’s face pop with color, such as dwarf pink phlox for Mickey’s tongue.

By the way, after Joe Fowler’s memo to Jack Evans on July 11th … Bill supposedly built & then installed the framework for Mickey’s face in that hillside directly below the Main Street Train Station on July 13th. Ruth then directed the planting of those thousands of colorful annuals into the framework that formed the floral Mickey on July 15th. And two days later, at the very start of “Dateline Disneyland,” Art Linkletter stood in front of that Floral Mickey and welcomed television viewers around the globe to Walt’s family fun park.

Yes, because things were done so close to the deadline, things got stressful. Perhaps too stressful. Just two weeks after Disneyland Park opened, Jack Evans suffered a massive heart attack. He never returned to the field after that. He stayed back at the Evans & Reaves Nursery and mostly handled paperwork from there on in. But even that proved to be too much for Jack. After another cardiac episode, he passed away in 1958.

Perhaps unfairly, the fact that the horticultural aspect of the Disneyland project had gotten so stressful towards the end of its construction was placed at the feet of Ruth Shellhorn. One might argue that -- because the construction teams in Anaheim had initially been so tough of her -- Shellhorn then had to push back. Be as tough as they were.

The end result was … Well, Walt felt just terrible about what happened to Jack. So he wound up throwing a lot of work Bill’s way. So much so that Evans would eventually go on to design the landscape of Disney’s theme parks for the next half a century. I mean, even though Bill officially retired from the Mouse House in 1975, the Company kept calling him back to consult on every theme park they built after that. Right up until Hong Kong Disneyland (which would open in September of 2005). Bill died three years prior to the opening of that theme park at the age of 92.

 As for Ruth Shellhorn, the talented landscape architect who’d come in at virtually the last minute and helped Disneyland Park to open on time, she wasn’t invited to stay on the project. Ruth moved on to other things.

Mind you, Shellhorn’s involvement in the creation of Disneyland is acknowledged. In certain spots. You just have to know where to look for them. There’s that “Disneyland -- World of Flowers” book (which was published back in 1965 as part of that theme park’s tencennial). In the foreword that Disney personally wrote for this hardcover, Walt said:

“In giving credit for the landscaping at the Park, it is impossible to mention all who have contributed. Special plaudits are due to Ruth Patricia Shellhorn for her design of the formal Victorian plan for Main Street, the Town Square, and the Plaza. The trees and shrubs she selected in the spring of 1955 are still used today.”

Which includes that Floral Mickey right below the Main Street Train Station. Which -- again -- only got planted just days before Walt’s family fun park first opened to the public and then went on to become one of the most photographed things in the world.

Not bad for something that was thrown together at the very last moment. Just keep that in mind when you start a book report that’s due on Monday morning on Sunday night.