Rant...Walt Disney World vs. Disneyland (Part 2)

In an earlier column (To view part 1 - click here.), I railed against the inequity between the “love” the Walt Disney Company shows for its California theme parks versus the love it shows for their flagship resort in Florida. I pointed out numerous instances where this was the case, from the number of high profile events at Disneyland (as opposed to Disney World), the fact that Disneyland gets a new parade every year (whereas Disney World has been running a variation of the same daytime parade for over a decade), special summer offerings, the drastic differences in quality between Fantasmics, and so on. I pointed out that the Walt Disney World resort, if for no other reason than its sheer size alone, brings in a boatload more money than Disneyland does. I ended the article with the question- “why?” That’s where we’ll begin this column.



The simplest answer to that question lies in an age old expression- “the squeaky wheel gets greased.” Disney World and Disneyland serve very different demographics. The vast majority of Disneyland’s visitors are locals, and annual passholders. They visit weekly, many visit daily. Because they’re there so often, they expect new offerings frequently.

Imagine visiting Disneyland every week during the summer, and seeing the same parade year, after year, after year. It’s only natural that you’d become upset or annoyed. If it didn’t change, you might even consider cutting back on your visits. "No big deal," you think Disney would say, "they already paid for their annual pass." However, cutting back on visits - because there’s nothing new - means passholders are not spending money on food or merchandise, where the real profits are made.

Cynthia Harris

Paul Pressler with Roy

If you look back, a bit, however, you will see that the constant plus-ing and additions wasn’t always the case. Back in the mid-1990’s, as the 50th anniversary of Disneyland was approaching, Disneyland was falling into a state of disrepair. The park was run by two “bean-counter” executives, who didn’t seem to care about innovation or creating new experiences for guests. The executives were Cynthia Harris and Paul Pressler, former fashion executives who had no experience in theme parks before being appointed by Michael Eisner to their positions. They were hired not for their innovations or creativity, but because they had been incredibly successful in their earlier posts managing and expanding the Disney Store franchise. Under their leadership, the number of Disney Stores increased from 160 to 335, fitting right in to Eisner’s 20% growth across the board goal for the company.

Michael Eisner

Eisner wrongly believed that the product Disneyland offered would sell itself, and the resort needed only a caretaker (or two in this case). This proved to be a gross miscalculation, as the two proved what exactly is wrong with taking two retail minds and putting them in charge of a theme park. The duo began eliminating rides and attractions, including many old favorites that had been there since the park’s opening in 1955- the skyway, the keelboats, the Submarine Voyage, the Fantasyland Autopia, and the People Mover - chief among them. None of this would have been so bad had the attractions and experiences been replaced with new attractions and experiences. However, Pressler and Harriss replaced them with…shopping and dining. In their eyes, it seemed as though a family trip to Disneyland was to be centered not around a family experiencing rides and attractions together (as Walt envisioned it, of course), but on shopping together and spending money.

In addition to this, Harris (who was running the Disneyland Resort, while Pressler ran all of the Disney Parks) appointed Hewitt Irby as the “groundskeeper” of the resort (his official title was Operations Director). This was just before the opening of Disney’s California Adventure. Irby came up with some unique ways to cut costs, including the cutting down of many of the maintenance teams. Prior to Irby’s arrival, there were 8 teams of six members (a carpenter, electrician, plumber, 2 engineers, and a mechanic) whose jobs were to go around the resort and trouble shoot problems. This is why maintenance issues, unless they were catastrophic, never lasted long. It’s also why, at Disneyland, broken light bulbs never stayed broken for more than an hour, a reputation I am sure many were proud of. When Irby took control, believing he was helping efficiency, he cut the teams down to 3, now only consisting of 3 members- an electrician, a mechanic, and a plumber (I would think using 9 people for a 48 person job would be more efficient too - Mike) This caused the downtime on broken attractions to double, and in some cases triple. Irby also instituted a “ride it until it breaks” policy, almost completely eliminating preventative maintenance, on the (misguided) theory that if it works, it must not need maintenance. It must also be noted (if for no other reason than its outlandishness) that Irby fired the nighttime cleaning crews and replaced them by hiring army reserves, because they were cheaper. What happened on multiple occasions, however, was that the reserves were put on alert and told to report back to base, leaving the park completely unkempt and unprepared for the following day.

Columbia River Boat, ran until it broke, with deadly consequences

Naturally, Irby’s policies were approved by Harriss and Pressler, and presumably Eisner, since they saved so much money. However, they lead to some of the biggest PR disasters the Disneyland resort ever experienced, including the Matterhorn crane incident (where in 1997 a crane crashed in to the side of the mountain, severely damaging it). Also, Irby’s “run it until it breaks” policy was directly responsible for several deaths, including the two guests who died while waiting on line for the Columbia river boat when the wood planks the anchor tied to rotted away, and the guests who died on California Screamin’ because of problems with the brakes.

Al Lutz - center

I realize this is a longer introduction than I usually supply, but I think it’s necessary you understand the position Disneyland was in shortly after the opening of California Adventure. That is to say, it was not all peaches and cream over there like it is now. What caused the change, then? A powerful, vocal, group of annual passholders, led by writer Al Lutz.

Part of Lutz' campaign, demanding change

Lutz, who writes a Disneyland blog and runs a Disneyland website, became frustrated at the level of incompetence among Disneyland management, and began to rally the troops, as it were. Links to his website started turning up around the internet, and he soon became a force to be reckoned with among the Disneyland community. Cast members, fed up with the resort’s state of disrepair, began to email him “tips” about problems with the resort, so that Lutz could post about it on his blog, which he gleefully did. In time, media outlets like the L.A. Times were using him as a legitimate source for Disneyland news, much to the chagrin of management. Lutz and his band of followers demanded change, and hit Disney where it hurt the most- their wallet. The Disneyland fan base, which is smaller and much more centralized than the WDW one, staged demonstrations on the Esplanade, didn’t renew their annual passes, and continued to harangue management. Two big events caused the scales to finally tip in favor of the fans: the departure of Michael Eisner, and the return to the company of John Lasseter, a former Disneyland cast members.

John Lasseter - back and better then ever

Eisner was replaced as CEO by Bob Iger, who saw the necessity of keeping “Walt’s Park” in tip-top shape. He almost immediately replaced Harriss and Pressler, though at the same time he unfortunately appointed Meg Crofton to run WDW. More importantly, one of the people he almost always listened to was former Jungle Cruise skipper John Lasseter, who was brought back in to the company when Disney reacquired Pixar. Lasseter was a self-confessed theme park geek, who loved the Disneyland resort and constantly reminded Iger that Disneyland was Walt’s park, and Walt wouldn’t want it this way, and whatnot. Iger listened, and Disneyland began to reinvent itself, working to please its annual passholders. The resort undertook an almost complete remodeling of California Adventure (at a huge expense- it will take almost as much to fix California Adventure as it did to build it in the first place), which was the company’s tacit admission that the park, created by Harriss and Pressler, was a disaster. Entertainment was overhauled- new parades were added, new fireworks shows, live entertainment returned, seasonal overlays to attractions such as the Haunted Mansion and It’s a Small World, long ago eliminated because they were too costly, also returned.


What does all this mean for Walt Disney World? It means that change is possible, though it will be more difficult for the fans of the Florida property. Why? Well, most visitors to Disney World visit once every 3-5 years, on average. The multi-times per year visitor is much less common at Walt Disney World. As such, WDW executives don’t work to please them, but to please the big spending guests that splurge every few years. If the majority of their guests aren’t coming every year, then it stands to reason they don’t need to vary their offerings every year. The other challenge is the lack of organization among Walt Disney World passholders. There is no Al Lutz of Walt Disney World who can constantly point out the problems of the resort. Also, the Walt Disney World passholders live all over the country, and are not nearly as centralized as their Disneyland counterparts are. Finally, regardless of how many guest comment cards we all fill out, the only way Disney will listen is if attendance drops. And, let’s be honest…how many families are going to cancel their trip because the Magic Kingdom daytime parade hasn’t changed since 2001?