At Scenes from a Hat Bigby wonders if Roy Disney sold out. He draws this list of items Roy himself said the company had to solve before Roy would end his campaign. 10 years of declining performance failing strategy lack of executive depth decline in working conditions and cast morale failure of ABC network failure… Read More »Roy Disney sell out or visionary?
Note: Typepad, the host for this blog, is undergoing some upgrades right now. Please pardon the appearance of the Disney Blog until their work is done. The recent sad incident that involved the death of a 4-year old while experiencing Epcot’s Mission: Space put the spotlight on the theme park’s emergency reaction plans. General consensus… Read More »Response to Emergency Questioned
The recent tragic death of a 4-year old after riding Walt Disney World’s Mission: Space attraction at Epcot has highlighted the lack of oversight by local, state, or federal agencies for the Florida tourists destination. Now California’s Disneyland theme park, which operates under some of the strictest state oversight in the nation, has just been… Read More »Judges Rule for higher safety standards in California
With Spring Break officially in the record books now, I can report that we survived. Mostly by avoiding the parks when we could and by avoiding any of the major throughfares. A good idea, as Ken pointed out earlier in the comments: Disney World – Magic Kingdom was closed at least 3 days in a… Read More »A Break from Spring Break
This Day in Disney History. A great resource for all sorts of interesting Disney facts. Here are a few examples for today. There’s more on the website.1924:Disney’s Alice Comedy Alice’s Spooky Adventure, starring Virginia Davis, is released.1976:Treasure Island reopens at Walt Disney World as Discovery Island, after being closed since the beginning of the year… Read More »This day in Disney History
The Osceola County Tourist Development Council wants you to know that the area just south and east of Walt Disney World is ready to receive your tourist dollars. As such, they’re launching an advertising campaign to draw tourists away from the higher end resorts of the Disney World and International Drive areas to their more… Read More »Kissimmee-St. Cloud, where’s that?
On January 24 Xlibris (a print on demand online bookstore) released Walt’s People – Talking Disney with the Artists who Knew Him – Volume 1, the first volume of a series of books that aims to re-animate the field of Disney research. The Walt’s People book series, edited by Didier Ghez, is a collection of the best interviews ever conducted with Disney artists.
Despite improved attendance numbers, apples to apples profit numbers reveal that the parks are having their worst years since the 80s. I’m sure the number crunchers up in Burbank have better models than me, but since you asked… the company is now reaping what it has sowed. The 90s were supposed to be the Disney Decade at the Themeparks. Instead we saw cuts in attraction budgets, a reliance on the cheaper (sometimes! remember the expensive mistake that was Light Magic) entertainment, cuts in training, and an across the board slashing of maintenance budgets. Not only has this resulted in death and injury at the theme parks, but it affected Disney brand as the top quality family entertainment vacation destination.