You ever get the feeling that Mickey’s right hand doesn’t actually know what the left one is doing?
How so? Well, last week in Philadelphia, Disney PR flaks were talking up safety. Handing out press kits to reporters that had Timon and Pumbaa plastered all over them. As the “Lion King” characters talked up Disney’s new “Wild About Safety” program. A company-wide initiative that emphasized all the extra effort that the Mouse had been putting into making all of its theme parks even safer for the millions of guests who visit them each year.
“And why would Disney be doing something like that?,” you ask. Well, perhaps it’s because — out in Anaheim — Mickey’s getting ready to re-open Big Thunder Mountain Railway, the Disneyland attraction that accidentally killed a guest last fall. So — by talking up all the additional attention that the Walt Disney Company has now reportedly been placing on safety-related issues — it allows the Mouse to potentially gloss over or even ignore some of the more pointed questions that have been coming its way lately. As is: Why was preventive maintenance allowed to become such a low priority at the Anaheim theme park that guests’ lives were eventually put in jeopardy?
Speaking of strange priorities, how’s this for a truly frightening peek at how the Walt Disney Company REALLY feels about safety-related issues at its theme parks: Less than 24 hours after Disney’s annual shareholders meeting was adjourned, a new policy was announced to Disney World cast members. One that would merge the separate Central Base of Operations for the four Disney World theme parks into two backstage locations. A cost savings measure that could — due to the additional response time now involved here — eventually wind up costing someone their life.
To explain: Under the proposed terms of this new plan, Epcot Central Base would be merged with Magic Kingdom’s Central Base of Operation. Animal Kingdom’s Base would then be moved over to Disney/MGM Studios.
For those of you who don’t know: Central Base (or Maintenance Base, as it’s called over at Disney-MGM) is the central hub for the theme park when it comes to all matters relating to maintenance, safety, show control, etc. For example: When someone has a heart attack at a Disney theme park, it’s the cast member who’s working in Central Base who actually contacts Reedy Creek Emergency Services and requests that a medical team be sent to the appropriate area in that theme park.
So — obviously — Central Base plays a crucial role in the successful operation of each of WDW’s theme parks. By that I mean: Given that the personnel manning this call center know their own theme parks particularly well, these folks can then direct ambulances or fire trucks to the nearest backstage entrance and/or talk emergency response teams through the quickest possible way to enter a particular ride or show in order to deal with a stricken guest.
But now — purely as a cost savings measure — Disney is propising collapsing the four WDW Central Bases into two. A move that many Disney World vets see is a recipe for disaster.
Said one Mouse House employee who was familiar with the situation:
“All it’s going to take is one incident where the person who’s manning Central Base isn’t all that familiar with the theme park that he’s dispatching Reedy Creek Emergency crews to. Maybe he’ll accidentally send the ambulance to the Fantasyland utilidor entrance instead of backstage behind the Crystal Palace. That couple of minutes that could be lost — all because someone isn’t as familiar with the ins and outs of a theme park as they could be — could be the difference between life and death in some situations.
Then — of course — whatever cost savings the Walt Disney Company was able to achieve by merging the four Central Bases into two will immediately be lost once the family of the deceased turns around and sues the Mouse. Claiming that their loved one would have had a better chance at survival if Disney hadn’t gone with a more cost-effective way of running its backstage operations.
Yeah, all it’s going to take is for one Reedy Creek ambulance driver to get up on the stand and say” “Well, yes, we did used to have faster response times and we were a lot more efficient when all the Disney World theme parks each had their very own Central Bases … ‘ And some jury is going to hit the Walt Disney Company with some multi-million dollar judgment. Then not only will the Mouse take a hit in its wallet, it’ll also damage the reputation of the four Disney World theme parks forever.
Of course, none of that matters to upper management at the parks these days. All these guys can think about is that they get to tell the suits back in Burbank that ‘We kept costs down this year by cutting out redundancies.’ It’s sad that the senior staff of this company has become so short sighted.
Mark my words, Jim. Someone’s going to die because of this proposed policy change. That’s why you need to get the word out about what’s going on with WDW’s Central Bases ASAP.”
It’s this sort of thing that I just find amazing about the Walt Disney Company these days. How Michael Eisner — the CEO of the Disney Corporation — can stand on stage at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and proclaim that safety remains a No. 1 priority at the Disney theme parks … while — just 24 hours later — Walt Disney World management can quietly attempt to implement a significant change like this. One that could potentially comprise the safety of the tens of thousands of guests who visit the company’s four Central Florida theme parks each single day.
Doesn’t there seem to be an awfully big disconnect these days between what Disney says it’s doing and what the Mouse actually does?
Your thoughts?