Inspired By The Past, Optimistic For The Future

I usually don't do posts with links to other blogs, mainly because there are so many good ones and I can never keep up. But there are two posts I read this weekend, and although they are very different in content they seem oddly related. Both encapsulate many frustrations I have with the Disney Parks while also conveying optimism that things can be better.

The first post is from Cory over at Voyages Extraordinaires. It is the one year anniversary of his blog and he has a great post summarizing his goal for the site, you should give it a read:


"The loss of romance and wonder in the world is entirely a matter of perspective. We may opt to be cynical and jaded and believe that the world doesn't have a new trick to show us... or we may come to grasp the great truism that any place you have not actually been to is a blank spot on the map, any piece of information you have not learned is uncharted territory. In the words of our prophet G.K. Chesterton: "The world will never starve for want of wonders, but for want of wonder."

The second is from Epcot Central it's an "off-the-cuff list of the Top 10 Changes EPCOT Central would love to see at EPCOT -- presented with a hope that you'll share your own additions, and that EPCOT will continue moving forward into a brighter, more exciting future." Go give it a read as well.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Disney recently announced the successor to the "Year of a Million Dreams" (YMD) campaign with "Disney Celebrations" for 2009. I have been a frequent critic of the YMD campaign for various reasons, but with the new "Celebration's" campaign I have to give credit where credit is due.

The new campaign gets you into Disney World or the Disneyland Resort for free on your birthday. There are also other vacation packages/incentives for anniversaries, honeymoons, and graduations etc. Now this is a great campaign idea! It is quantifiable and will not only draw people through the turnstiles as a direct result, but will also lead to a rise in hotel bookings and food & merchandise sales as well.

I am also happy to hear that Disney has not left the annual pass-holders (AP's) high and dry on their birthdays. If you are an AP there are several celebration options:

-A birthday fun card in an amount equal to the price of a 1-Day/1-Park ticket for you to use on your birthday for merchandise, recreation or fun activities at select participating locations.

-A special birthday FASTPASS® ticket+ for certain attractions at the Theme Park you visit on your birthday.

-Or a 1-Day/1-Park ticket for you to use any time until your next birthday.

The only thing I would add is that there should be some sort of incentive for AP's to visit parks on the opposite coast of their annual passes. If you have a Walt Disney World AP and you want to visit the Disneyland Resort for your birthday, you not only get a free one day ticket on your birthday, but also some sort of break on a hotel or dining package. AP's are the biggest Disney fans and if Disney were smart they'd cater aspects of this promotion for AP's to take an even longer vacation (i.e. spend even more money) at an opposite resort .

While I fear we have passed the point of no return with these annual themed campaigns for the parks and that over time there is a huge potential for them to go down-hill fast, the new "Celebrations" campaign is a great idea and one that will be very successful. It should be a good year for the parks in 2009! I guarantee you it was intentionally not called the "Year of Celebrations" for the sole reason that it will be extended after it proves successful... I can already here it... "the celebration continues!"

And maybe after the Year of Million Dreams is over we will all get one last Dream granted... the return of the Disney Gallery!

Drawings From Imagineers: John Horny

Of all the "Drawings from Imagineers" posts I have done, John Horny is the only one that is still at Walt Disney Imagineering. I met him in the halls after one of the WDI life drawing workshop back in 95' and he was kind enough to show me some of his work for the Disney cruise line that was in development.

John is one of those guys who will go down in the Disney history books as one of the great Imagineers. The last I heard he resides in a certain corner office at WDI that used to belong to John Hench. Enough said... I think so!

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.