Save The Adventurers Club

An Adventure comes to an end, and I don't mean Indiana Jones 4.

I'm sure it's not news to most of you, but I thought it worth mentioning that the Adventurer's Club, along with the rest of Pleasure Island will close on September 28th. The club is themed as a "gentleman’s adventure club in 1937, and every night is 'open house' where they are recruiting new members. Mainly, you!" It is a one-of-a-kind Imagineering creation, and one that is worth saving.

Head over to Save the Adventurers Club ... they have some great photos as well as a petition to save the club. With enough voices maybe Disney will reconsider and integrate it into the shopping district that is currently on the boards to replace Pleasure Island, or re-imagine it into Animal Kingdom or some other fitting location.

For the west coast, I've always wished Disney would put in an Adventurer's Club into Downtown Disney. Or even better yet, if they are never going to bring back the Tahitian Terrace, they should replace Aladdin's Oasis with a restaurant version of the Adventurer's Club.

Happy Birthday Disneyland!

Happy 53rd Birthday Disneyland! I hope when Mickey blows out those candles and makes a wish that he wishes for Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln to be brought back... Steve Martin you are 3 years over due.

King of the Castle... or Apartment

Everyday at Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom in Florida, "Merlin the Magician selects young squires and ladies from throughout the kingdom for this test of strength and courage. If you succeed in this seemingly impossible task, you will be crowned the new monarch of the realm." And accordingly, the King should get to stay in the castle... or Walt's apartment.

What better way to dole out the grand prize for the Year of a Million Dreams promotion (a stay in the Castle or Walt's apartment for a night) than to award it as part of the Sword in the Stone ceremony? It would be a much more creative, entertaining, and public way to implement the overly advertised yet rarely witnessed Year of a Million Dreams campaign- instead of just having a cast member walk up to and say "You've won a stay in the castle."

Resident Fortune Tellers

I've been fascinated with the old coin operated fortune telling machines ever since I saw the movie "Big" where Tom Hanks pleads to Zoltar to make him magically grow up over night. These machines have a great sense of nostalgia, which is why it's no surprise that Disneyland is the home of two such fortune tellers Esmeralda and Shrunken Ned.

We all know how they work... you drop in a quarter, they read your palm or consult their cards, give you a little spiel and print you a card with your fortune. Both fortune tellers at Disneyland are really well placed and fit thematically within each land they reside. Esmeralda is an antique fortune teller that sits on Main Street in the Penny Arcade. The beheaded British explorer Shrunken Ned on the other hand, is an Imagineering one-of-a-kind found in the shops in Adventureland. You might even remember Captain Fortune Red who once resided in New Orleans Square?





I'd like to see Imagineering create custom fortune tellers for each land at Disneyland. In Fantasyland maybe the three Fairy God-Mothers from Sleeping Beauty grant you a wish, in Tomorrowland a droid may scan you and give you a piece of sage advice, and in New Orleans Square Calypso awaits to give you and eerie prediction (that you can hardly understand).

But these are Disney fortune tellers they should have greater powers than just prediction. For every hundred or so fortune cards dispensed the deck should be stacked with ones that are redeemable for something, like a fast pass for your entire party good on any ride in that land, a free trading pin, or a set of mouse ears! Or in other words all of the little prizes that are part of the Year of a Million Dreams (YMD) promotion.

I've griped about the YMD promotion before, but my issue is with the way the prizes are handed out rather than the concept itself. Utilizing Disneyland's resident fortune tellers would make winning some of these smaller prizes more surprising and entertaining for guests. It would remove the ambiguity of winning prizes under the current YMD promotion by making the who, what, when, where, and how quantifiable.

Please Remain Seated

Howdie folks! Sorry there has been a lack of posts lately. I've been in a bit of a crunch at work for the last month or so. But, not to fear the worst is over and I promise a bountiful summer at WED Enterprises Blog. Stay tuned for more "Drawings from Imagineers," "Countries I'd Like To See in Westcot," "The Golden E-Ticket," "WED Life Drawing" and much more!

I also plan to start a recurring post-theme on Disney related restaurant ideas. So in the mean time I'll leave you with this amazingly fanciful image of the "Restaurant De La Reserve" in Nice, France- circa 1930 (I think?) It has nothing directly to do with Disney but I must say I wouldn't mind seeing it recreated in a Disney park or Hotel.

See you in the next few weeks.

Save the Rain Forest

Most everyone who frequents the Disney Blog-o-sphere is familiar with the "It's A Small World" debacle. If you're not and want the long version, you can read up with the various links to all sides of the issue at the bottom of this post. The short version is that there are rumors of proposed changes to "It's A Small World" which include the adding of Disney characters, the removal or reduction of the Rain Forest scene, and the addition of a tribute to America scene replacing the original finale.

I have many issues with each of these rumored additions, and I don't have time to cover all of them to the degree they deserve.  What bothers me the most is the mindset that the ride is irrelevant to younger generations, and that it is in need of being enhanced in order to resonate with people. I don't understand how the theme of children around the world uniting becomes more relevant to a child riding "It's a Small World" if there are Disney characters in it. It's a non sequitur, much like adding a figure of Captain Hook to Pirates of the Carribean- it's out of place and detracts thematically from the story being told.

Disney's recent history of making attractions more relevant by adding Disney characters hasn't been the resounding success they say it has been. To people like Disney archivist Dave Smith, who site such examples as the updating of the Tiki Room to the "Under New Management" version and the transformation of the "Swiss Family Tree house" to "Tarzan's Tree house," I would ask why haven't those upgrades been made to their various counterparts at the other parks if they are such relevant and successful changes? Is it because they don't want to change the original, classic version or is it because the change wasn't deemed worth adding in the end?

There is a certain percentage of the general public that will never like "It's a Small World" regardless of what is added or changed. You can't please all the people all the time. Case in point, my wife's cousins from Germany, whom, after we lured them onto the ride remarked, "that would have been fun with a shotgun." It's not for everyone, I understand. But to think that it needs a Disney tie-in to broaden the appeal and make it more popular than it has been is myopic.

To those who use the "Walt Was for Change" arguement... yes, yes, and yes. We all know Disneyland is and was a work in progress for Walt, and that he always wanted it to evolve and grow. But when Walt said those things about Disneyland there was only one Disneyland at the time. Today there are multiple Magic Kingdoms on many continents. There are various "Small World" rides amongst the parks world wide, some of which have already adopted these changes, but there is only one Mary Blair original. Isn't there some room, and value, to preserving some of the things that are unique to Walt's original sandbox?

If I were in charge at Disney I would use the fact that Disneyland is the original, and as such has many characteristics and attractions that are worth leaving untouched as historical centerpieces in the collection of their counterparts. I would use it as a selling point and even quite literally as a marketing campaign.


Related Letters, Articles, and Opinions:

-Animation Community Speaks from Re-Imagineering.

-World of Tears from Re-Imagineering

-Letter from the Blair Family.
-KCRW Interview with Imagineer Kim Irivine.
-Save the Rain Forest web site.
-Letter from Marty Sklar (courtesy of The Disney Blog.)
-Letter from Dave Smith at LaughingPlace.com
-"It's A Sacrosanct World After All" from Your Souvineer Guide.

iPhone Themepark

You're probably already asking yourself what possible connection can there be with the iPhone and Disneyland? Give me one second... the iPhone is gaining popularity. As time goes by, and various versions are released, I'm sure sales will continue to grow and that the iPhone will soon be as common place as the iPod. Given the close relationship between Apple and Disney, here are four ideas utilizing the ingenuity of both companies: selling Disney themed iphone home-screens, a ride wait-time "web app" for the iPhone, down-loadable park guide maps and show times, and a park hours widget! Here we go in detail...

1.Disney Home-Screen Themes for the iPhone.

People have been unlocking the software on the iPhone and installing among other things, custom created home screens and icons. It's gaining popularity and the themes that people have been creating are very professional looking. Of course it didn't take long for the Disney enthusiasts to have a go at this. It's high time for Disney and Apple to make these available legitimately through iTunes. The character themes are a little much for me personally. However, a friend of mine showed me a theme he had modified from the 1920's "old time" home screen found at iph0nethemepark. I couldn't resist modifying his modification with some subtle Disney touches. Recognize the wallpaper? And who is that predicting the weather in the crystal ball?


2. Disneyland Ride Wait-Time Web App.

A what?? The iPhone and iPod touch have "Web Apps." Miniature internet bookmarks if you will, to loads of handy information like finding local movie times, checking Halo 3 stats, or tracking packages. All this information is updated live to the iPhone. So what's my idea for a Disneyland Ride-Time Web App? Simply put, this on your iPhone:

The capability to check wait times on your iPhone while anywhere in the park! Or anywhere else in the world wishing you were in the park when you see Pirates is only a 5 minute wait.

3. Down-loadable Park Maps.Although not officially put out by Disney, there is a Disney Magic Kingdom Map Web App that is very cool. It gives you maps of all four Walt Disney World parks, you can quickly navigate to attractions and restaurants and give it a tap to see the details. This is a great idea, a digital version of the park guide maps found at the main gate. If I was Disney I would get on this- and quick. I would even take it a step further and have docking stations in City Hall on MainStreet and in Tomorrowland (how appropriate) where guests could dock their iPhone or iPod-Touch and download maps and daily show time schedules straight to their iPhone while in the park.

4. A Park Hours Widget.

A widget, and or web app that gives you daily park operating hours and show schedules at the push of a button on your desktop. There is actually a version of this on the annual passholders portion of the the Disneyland website. Which, by the design of it looks like a wanna-be widget...

...but you have to be an annual passholder and also have to be logged in to get it in this form. Otherwise you're stuck with the general calendar they offer which is a real "site" for sore eyes. Disney needs to get on the widget bandwagon, it's the 21st century guys! Information should be a lot easier to get than that.

There ya have it, four very "techy" ideas I'd like to see on my iPhone someday. These ideas aren't that hard or expensive to do for a company like Disney... fingers crossed everyone.

Special thanks to J.J. McQuay on this one.