Well, looks like we renewed our Disneyland Premium Annual Passports just in the nick of time. Seems that, surprise! Last Sunday, the suits at TDA figured they could sneak out a price increase all around for guests.
Now I’m not insensitive to the foibles of business and that from time to time, an increase in admissions may be the right thing to do. But in the middle of spring break and with lots of construction ongoing, you can be easily forgiven for asking, “What in heck are they thinking?”
Seems that there are those genius Accountanteers who feel that too many of us may be leaving the parks with funds unspent. So this is their easiest or least resistant method of extorting, eh, streamlining that extra moolah from our pockets. Never mind the poor folks who staff the ticket booths and the grief they will get for the next six months over it. Why they’re damn lucky to have jobs! They should pay Disney for the privilege of taking that abuse from those unhappy “Guests”.
It seems odd that these financial weasels didn’t decide to go for the gusto and eliminate the Southern California resident passes altogether. Those cheap passes are the baby-sitting answer for the bored teenagers of the southland. Drop ’em off in the morning and be back in the evening to collect. Works like a charm, right? Doing away with this demographic group would have several positives results for other “Guests”, in this writer’s humble opinion. Fewer angsty, chain-smoking Goth wanna-be’s dragging their butts about the parks and less whining about how much they hate the place, and why isn’t the food cheaper here, and on and on and on… It shouldn’t take an MBA with a PDA doing surveys to see that local residents spend less per visit than the folks who live farther from the parks and hence don’t enjoy the Mickey & Friends parking structure to the point where they know the Cast Members who work the rows and trams on a first name basis.
Watching how prices for AP’s have gone up over the years is definitely amusing. I do not mind spending more, but sure hope there is something offered in return. Instead, we will likely see discounts and or benefits refined to the point of extinction, if some of the cubicle vermin have their ways with the program. Got to say, the genie was out of the bottle long before they started work on “Aladdin” in Burbank. There’s not much chance of going back to the way things were before a one-price for all activities. And if you’re willing to place a wager about prices going down for admissions, I think I can find someone in Vegas to give you long odds on it ever happening. In other words, save those pennies to get through the gate for the next trip.
Over the years, I’ve always looked at an AP as the equivalent of a multi-day pass. Now, the Premium AP (at $279.00) is equal to about five and one half daily admissions to one of the two parks. So far, I’ve already covered a day and a half. That leaves four more days to enjoy to feel that it’s amortized.
All righty then. Enough of the AP rant, okay? Time to change from the Cranky Pants.
Quietly sneaking in under the radar, in the news earlier this week was the decision of the judge in the lawsuit over the rights to the profits from Disney’s “Winnie-The-Pooh” empire. This link from the SF Chronicle sums up the story pretty well.
“Superior Court Judge Charles W. McCoy Jr. ruled Monday that the owner of those rights unlawfully obtained confidential documents from Disney offices and trash.
McCoy dismissed the suit with prejudice, meaning Pooh rights owner Stephen Slesinger Inc. cannot sue again on the claim.”
Of course now there will be never ending appeals (after thirteen plus years so far) unless the two sides quietly reach a settlement. But it is a definite victory for Disney as they stood to pay out one heck of a lot from the sales of all that popular “Pooh” merchandise from t-shirts to plush to DVD’s, etcetera…
So, the next time you buy something at Wal-Mart with a “Pooh” connection, rest assured it’s doing its bit for that mythical thirty percent return Mikey, eh, Michael Eisner promised in Philadelphia.
(And I thought it ironic how the alleged W.C. Fields epitaph didn’t come out during all that. “All things considered. I’d rather be in Philadelphia.” But why stop there? Here’s another one of note: “Never mind what I told you–you do as I tell you.”)
Well, dipping into the well of rumors, I’ve heard that the Disneyland Dinner Train concept is still alive and kicking. Seems that this came from outside Disney to TDA from a dinner train operator. There is even a plan to have cars purpose built by a company that does the same for major players in the tourism industry. No word about motive power for this fantasy train. As the locomotives of the fleet have their hands full with the current consists, it will be amusing to see where this ends up. Not to mention where such a train would be stored. Maybe they would revive the original railroad buildings and spur. Look for the boarded-over tunnel on the left side of the track between Frontierland and Toontown on your next ride. Lot’s of photos showing trains here once upon a time. Last time I looked the building was still there as well, but I don’t know what it’s being used for now.
Still, I think the whole concept is out of place for Disneyland. Disney World would be a much better place and the locomotive fleet there has bigger and better power to put to use for such a concept. Dinner trains need big capacity to serve as many diners as possible. If TDA does bite, I predict the operation would flop, and they would look to sell off the train set just to cut their losses, as quick as they could. Or like the Fort Wilderness Railroad, they might shove it out back somewhere under tarps until it’s all forgotten.
This isn’t the first dining experience that’s been dreamed up along the way. One plan had guests boarding the Mark Twain for dinner cruises. (Of course that would be difficult with Fantasmic show operations.) It’s been done elsewhere in a similar fashion. Glen Bell, the man behind Taco Bell, had his own theme park on the former Westside Lumber Company mill property in Tuolumne here in California’s Gold Country. The scheme there involved dinner boats (small motorized barges) that took passengers from a dock on a cruise around the former lumber mill pond. The boats docked again for each new course, and finally to put passengers ashore. It was a pleasant way to spend an evening. (The Westside & Cherry Valley lasted about 7 years in operation before closing in the mid eighties for a variety of reasons. Now it’s an Indian gaming location, and the railroad part of the place may come back to life.)
Still, one can only hope that saner thinking will prevail and this Dinner Train idea will just go away for good. Things can be interesting enough with parade route crossings and fireworks slowing and stopping trains during an evening. If Disney truly wants another upscale dining operation, by all means build one, but think fixed plant versus mobile. It’s just one heck of a lot easier on everyone concerned.
Spring training is coming to an end, and the Major League Baseball season is already underway as the Yankees and Devil Rays are playing in Japan. This year will be interesting as it’s the first year Disney does not have an interest in the Angels. Will Disney still be offering those value- priced tickets to games at nearby Edison Field? Guess we’ll have to wait and see. The Chronicle had a look at that baseball staple, the hot dog. One of my favorite sci-fi movie moments is from “2010” with John Lithgow and Roy Scheider discussing ball park hot dogs.
Heywood Floyd: I miss a hot dog.
Walter Curnow: Astrodome. Good hot dogs there.
Heywood Floyd: Astrodome? You can’t grow a good hot dog indoors. Yankee Stadium. September. The hot dogs have been broiling since opening day in April. Now that’s a hot dog.
Walter Curnow: The yellow mustard or the darker kind?
Heywood Floyd: The darker kind.
Walter Curnow: Very important.
I’m off on a trip this weekend to take in some baseball from a different perspective — Baltimore. It promises to be very interesting in more ways than I can think of, and you’ll read all about it right here next week. But ballpark food isn’t what it used to be, and that’s no joke. Where once a hot dog was about all you could expect, now it’s crab cakes and BBQ. The diet is gonna bend a bit this week…
I don’t know if Disney had any part in this, but here in San Francisco, about 2200 kids got a rare treat. “The Lion King” musical is in town and producer Carol Shorenstein Hays sprang for one heck of a great field trip for them. And the free (and the tax write-off for “supporting the schools”) publicity for the show doesn’t hurt either, with the cost of tickets valued somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000 plus free (as opposed to $4 each) water bottles for the wee folks. (And you thought water at Disneyland was expensive!)
So, don’t forget to turn those clocks ahead this weekend, and change those smoke detector batteries while you’re at it anyway. Remember, it’s a jungle out there. May the farce be with you…
Once more, Roger wants to shovel out a pitch for you all to support the Message Boards by either a donation or accepting one of the offers. EZBoard keeps the ads coming if we don’t. So with over 925 folks registered for them, it’s really won’t hurt all that much if a few folks drop a buck in the slot to keep them advertising free. Please?