For the past few weeks, the Web has been awash with stories about how Disneyland‘s Tom Sawyer Island is reportedly going to be rethemed. How this part of that Anaheim theme park (Which Walt Disney personally helped design, by the way. Numerous Disney biographies talk about how Walt supposedly took the plans for Tom Sawyer Island home with him one weekend. So that Disney himself could then chart out the attraction’s coastline) is going to be reworked so that it can then be marketed to fans of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” film series.
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Mind you, there are those who will tell you that this “Pirates” -themed redo of Tom Sawyer Island isn’t necessarily a done deal. That it’s just one of many concepts that the Imagineers are currently considering for the Disneyland Resort.
And they’d be right, actually. According to several Disney insiders that I’ve spoken with over the past week, plans for the entire Anaheim resort are very much in flux at the moment.
Take — for example — the DCA overhaul plan. That 10-year, $650 million scheme to reconfigure California Adventure into a more people-pleasing theme park. Week before last, the latest version of that plan was scrapped. As the Imagineers once again try to strike just the right balance between new attractions & shows that will actually get paying customers to come through the turnstiles and changes that can realistically be made to that theme park that are fiscally & operationally sound.
Truth be told, that’s one of the main stumbling blocks to changing Disneyland’s Tom Sawyer Island into a “Pirates of the Caribbean” -themed play area. That — strictly from an operational point of view — this proposed $28 million redo doesn’t make much sense.
As one veteran from Disneyland Operations explained it to me last week:
“You have to understand that Tom Sawyer Island is only reachable by raft. And these rafts can only carry 55 people at a time over to the island. So then — when you factor in the time that it takes to safely load and unload each raft — even when Disneyland has both rafts running and they’re then being operated by veteran cast members who can work at peak efficiency, you can still only get 1,000 – 1,100 guests over to the island per hour.
Photo by Jeff Lange
Now keep in mind that Tom Sawyer Island has to close every day at dusk. Realistically that means that only 9,000 – 10,000 guests will ever get the chance to experience the island each day that this attraction is actually open.
Which seems like a fairly large number. But you have to remember that — on a busy summer day — you can have 60,000 – 70,000 people crammed into the park. Taking into consideration Tom Sawyer Island’s operational hours plus the limited capacity of those rafts, that means that only 15% of Disneyland’s paying customers ever get have the chance to experience the island on a day like that.
Photo by Jeff Lange
Which isn’t really a problem now. Given that you’re talking about a 50-year-old attraction that has limited appeal to today’s guests. But if we were to actually retheme Tom Sawyer Island around the popular “Pirates of the Caribbean” film franchise … Unless we can significantly expand the island’s operating hours and/or radically increase the capacity of TSI’s main transportation system, we’re talking about a PR nightmare.
I mean, how would you like to be working at Guest Relations when a new “Pirates” -themed version of Tom Sawyer Island opens and be the one who has to explain to all those angry parents that — due to the limited capacity of this new attraction — only one out of every six guests will actually be able to get out to Pirate Island on a busy day at the park?”
Dealing with guests complaints about attractions that have extremely limited capacity is very much on TDA executives’ minds right about now. Given all of the PR problems that they’re anticipating having next summer with the opening of Disneyland’s new “Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage” ride.
Photo by Jeff Lange
Now keep in mind that — while Tomorrowland’s old subs may have been switched over from diesel to electric power — the actual interior of these eight 52-foot-long vehicles will only be changing slightly. Which means that the Imagineers have supposedly managed to shoehorn in two additional seats into each sub. Which will then change each submarine’s capacity from 38 to 40 guests per voyage.
Soooo … With all eight subs operating on a day when Disneyland is open from 9 a.m. to 12 midnight, that still means that only 17,000 – 18,000 guests will then get to experience the “Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage” ride … Meaning that only one out of every three guests that are in the park on a busy day will actually be able to board the subs during in that 15 hour period.
Now it’s important to understand here that Disneyland’s new “Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage” will be the primary focus of the Anaheim resort’s promotional push for the Summer of 2007. That there will be commercials on television, full page ads in newspapers & magazine, billboards along the 5 … All in an effort to get people to come out to the park next year.
But what won’t be mentioned in any of this “Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage” advertising is that only one third of the guests who buys admission to Disneyland will still actually be able to experience this ride on busy days.
Copyright 2006 Disney Enterprises, Inc.
At least from a PR point of view, this extremely-limited-capacity-of-the-park’s-new-“Finding-Nemo-Submarine-Voyage”-ride-during-its-first-summer-in-operation situation is really causing TDA executives concern. Which is why a number of options to potentially diffuse this situation are reportedly already being considered. These include:
- Giving guests who are staying at the Disneyland Hotel, Disney’s Grand California Hotel & Spa and Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel early admission to the park. Taking these folks directly into Tomorrowland via the Monorail and then allowing these folks to ride the “Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage” before Disneyland actually opens its doors for the day.
- Holding several weeks’ worth of special after-hours parties, where limited numbers of Disneyland annual passholders would then be allowed to ride this new Tomorrowland attraction — as well as the new nighttime version of Space Mountain, Rock it Mountain — as often as they like.
Which — on paper — all sound like wonderful ideas. Unless, of course, you happen to work in Operations at Disneyland. Then the very idea that management is toying with the idea of significantly extending the operational hours of this brand-new attraction is enough to give you fits.
How come? Our Ops insider explains:
“They haven’t even finished building the ride yet. But we’ve already got managers talking about reinstating ‘Magical Mornings’ at the park and holding after-hours parties in order to accommodate the crowds. Do you realize how stupid it is to make plans like that when we don’t even know yet what it’s going to take to keep this attraction up & running on a daily basis?
Copyright 2006 Disney Enterprises, Inc.
This new version of ‘Subs’ features technology that’s never been used in a Disney theme park before. Which means it’s probably going to take a lot of extra effort after-hours in order to keep this stuff operational next summer. When we’ll basically have every ride in the park in continuous operation from 9 a.m. to 12 midnight each day for three months solid.
And yet we’ve now got these managers talking about extending “Nemo’ ‘s operational hours so that this new ride can then meet guest demand. Which is going to seriously cut into our maintenance time.
This is a bad idea. Which I’m hoping they’ll abandon as we get closer to ‘Finding Nemo’ ‘s official opening date. Which — in case you haven’t noticed — has already slid from May to June to now mid-July.”
I know, I know. This Ops vet sounds very grumpy. But you’d be grumpy too if DLR management & the Imagineers kept talking about adding rides, shows and attractions to the theme park that you were expected to maintain without WDI or these Disneyland execs seeming to give much thought as to how these new additions will then be maintained.
Photo courtesy of Google Images
Which bring us to that 1920s-era transportation hub idea that the Imagineers have been kicking around as a possible redo of DCA’s “Sunshine Plaza” area. Though the guys in Ops agree that California Adventure’s entrance area really needs some help in order to make this theme park more appealing to the public, they still absolutely hate this idea.
Why For? Our Disneyland Operations old-timer continues:
“They want guests to experience what it was like to be an old-fashioned movie star by traveling in this open-top limousine that’s driven by a uniformed driver. He’d then take guests to and fro from the Hollywood Pictures Backlot area. There’d also be this trolley that would take guests from DCA’s new transportation hub out to Paradise Pier and back. Plus a rumbly old bus that would service both Condor Flats and Grizzly Peak.
It sounds like this would make the ‘Sunshine Plaza’ area a livelier place to visit. But the reality is — given what it would actually cost to turn the front part of the park into a 1920s transportation hub — Disney won’t get a very good return on that investment. You see, very few DCA guests will ever get the chance to enjoy & experience these new attractions.
Photo by Jeff Lange
I mean, take a look at the extremely limited capacity of all of the vehicles that you find on Main Street U.S.A. Disneyland’s horseless carriages carries less than 100 guests per hour. The fire engine? Just over 100 guests an hour.
The horse-drawn streetcar and the omnibus can each handle 400 – 600 guests per hour. But that’s only when they’re running. Let’s remember that you have to suspend operation of all vehicles on Main Street when you’ve got a parade moving through the park.
So Disney’s looking to spend upwards of $30 million to retheme the front part of DCA. Adding all of these low capacity attractions that would then have to suspend operation whenever you were running ‘Block Party Bash’ or the ‘Electrical Parade.’
It seems like an awful lot of money to spend to something that very few California Adventure visitors will actually get the chance to experience and enjoy. Which is why it would make a lot more sense — at least from an Ops point of view — to take all of that money and spend it on a single brand-new high capacity ride for that theme park. Something a whole lot of people could enjoy during their day at the park.”
Mind you, DCA’s newest addition — Midway Mania — will have a fairly high capacity. With a vehicle loaded with 16 guests entering that attraction every 30 – 45 seconds, that new Paradise Pier interactive dark ride will have a THC (I.E. Theoretical Hourly Capacity) of 1,400 – 1,600 visitors per hour.
Which isn’t exactly up there with what “Pirates of the Caribbean” (Which can handle 3,000 guests per hour) and “The Haunted Mansion” (Which can handle 2,500 guests per hour) can carry. But it’s certainly better than Disneyand’s new “Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage” ride will be able to do.
Anyway … That’s the Ops side of the Disney theme park equation. At least when it comes to the seldom-seen, behind-the-scenes effort that’s involved with operating & then maintaining new attractions once they’ve been placed in the parks.
But what do you folks think? Do you think it’s wise of WDI & Disneyland management not to consult with the Operations staff when they design new rides, shows and attractions for the Anaheim resort?
Your thoughts?