Industry Archives - Park Lore

June 27, 2024June 27, 2024

The Waiting Game: A Brief History of Queueing and The Many Lives of Lines at Disney Parks

What’s as classically-Disney as Mickey Mouse, Dole Whips, and spinning tea cups, but never shown on a Disney Parks commercial? Waiting in line.

From day one, waiting has been an essential (and for many, frustratingly memorable) component of any visit to Disneyland or Walt Disney World. And for nearly seventy years, generations of Disney’s engineers, experience designers, show writers, and executives have been trying to make guests’ waits shorter, more entertaining, more interactive, and – to the point of today’s tale – more managable.

In the great balance of guest experience, operations, and per capita spending, FastPass, FastPass+, Disney Genie+, and Lightning Lane have all taken swings at solving Disney’s supply-and-demand capacity dilemma. But altogether, Disney’s quest for the perfect virtual queue may still be ongoing, and the journey from standard queues to Genie+ is a wild ride in its own right… Today, we’ll dig into the history of waiting and explore how Disney’s 21st century solutions have created as many problems as they’ve solved.

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November 30, 2023November 30, 2023

The 25 Most Incredible Theme Park Animatronics on Earth

It wasn’t too long ago that a theme park attraction was lifeless without Audio-Animatronics. In fact, the number and complexity of these robotic animated figures was often proportional to a ride’s budget and success! Put simply: if you wanted to blow audiences away, animatronics figures were the way to do it.

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November 24, 2023November 24, 2023

Could Bob Iger Be Disney’s Last CEO? Thoughts on the Improbable Possibilities of a Disney•Apple Merger

“With every success the company has had since Steve [Jobs]’s death, there’s always a moment in the midst of my excitement when I think, I wish Steve could be here for this. It’s impossible not to have the conversation with him in my head that I wish I could be having in real life. More than that, I believe that if Steve were still alive, we would have combined our companies, or at least discussed the possibility very seriously.”

Those words were written by Disney’s then-exiting CEO Bob Iger in his 2019 memoir, The Ride of a Lifetime. A reflection on Iger’s once-unthinkable proposal to rebuild Disney’s then-burned bridge to Pixar by purchasing the still-young animation studio outright, Iger discusses his deep friendship with Apple / Pixar founder Steve Jobs, how much Disney learned from Pixar’s culture and creativity, and – most importantly – how, to Iger’s thinking, Disney and Apple might’ve merged if Steve Jobs hadn’t died in 2011.

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August 16, 2023May 6, 2024

Disney Is Slipping, Universal Rises, and Other Surprising Findings From Theme Park Attendance in 2022…

It’s one of the most anticipated data drops in all of theme park nerd-dom… Every year, a consulting firm called AECOM partners with the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) to release an annual report on the ups and downs of theme parks, waterparks, museums, and other “thematic” experiences from the year prior. The annual Global Attractions Attendance Report is a fascinating document that theme park fans should dive into in depth. It’s filled with the highs and lows, global contexts, and stories that permeated theme park news in the year prior.

But most importantly… it also contains a ranking of theme park attendance. To be clear, most theme park operators do not disclose their parks’ attendance, and even if they speak in broad generalities, totals, or percentages at investor calls, they almost never divulge specific attendance figures for specific parks… However, it’s known that many operators do work with AECOM to come up with fairly accurate figures since it’s in the best interest of their share price, financial disclosures, and year-upon-year narratives that their attendance be discussed vaguely, but honestly.

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February 20, 2023February 20, 2023

A Timeline of Disney Parks’ Annual Promotional Campaigns from the Millennium Celebration to “100 Years of Wonder”

No one knows how to throw a party quite like Disney.

That’s probably why, for the last quarter century, some of the most spectacular celebrations in the industry have actually been housed right in Disney’s theme parks. In fact, it’s something of an annual tradition for Disney to run year-long promotional campaigns centered on the Disney Parks, where grand decor, astounding entertainment, and special offerings abound.

When they’re done right, Disney Parks’ annual campaigns can leave the kinds of lasting memories that are cherished for generations. And sometimes, they don’t exactly live up to the hype… Today, we’re exploring Disney’s best (and sometimes, weirdest) campaigns from The Millennium Celebration to the World’s Most Magical Celebration and beyond…

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November 22, 2022August 16, 2023

The Bob Swap: Parting Words to Chapek’s Short-Lived Stint as Disney CEO, and Essential Reflections on What Happened

It happened. The unthinkable, the unimaginable, the unprecedented… In a late-evening announcement on Sunday, November 20, 2022, it was made official: beleaguered CEO of The Walt Disney Company Bob Chapek was gone. Less than three years after he was hastily elevated into the position (replacing long-time predecessor and beloved industry visionary Bob Iger) and just days after announcing he intended to launch waves of layoffs and hiring freezes in his data-oriented, revenue-maximizing approach to leading the world’s largest entertainment company, Chapek had been given a pink slip himself…

The unceremonious exit of the war-torn CEO was long a daydream of Disney fans – who largely detested Chapek’s management style and the strictly-financial lens through which he seemed to view The Walt Disney Company. Dreamier still, though, was Disney’s replacement. In an internal email to Cast, retired CEO Bob Iger announced with “gratitude and humility – and I must admit, a bit of amazement” that he would return to his former post, officially becoming the CEO of Disney once more.

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November 3, 2022November 3, 2022

MEOW WOLF: A Glimpse Into the Colorful, Creative, and Cosmic Future of Themed Entertainment Design

“Meow Wolf.” If you said it out loud a decade ago, you would probably have gotten a lot of concerned looks from family and friends.

But today, this artist collective based in Santa Fe, New Mexico has become a well-known creator in the themed entertainment design space with three permanent art installations spread across the American West. Meow Wolf’s three explorable installations – The House of Eternal Return, OmegaMart, and Convergence Station – are totally immersive, explorable environments; potential puzzles with discoverable backstories and vast lore; trippy, artistic, home-grown, artist-led, locally-sourced, completely-original universes designed for visitors to get lost, climb, slide, dance, relax, feel, and try something new.

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June 4, 2021July 10, 2021

AVENGERS: Custody War – Disney & Universal’s Co-Parenting Plans for MARVEL Super Heroes

“Avengers… Assemble!” Well… if only it were that easy.

Forget Thor and Loki; Wanda and Agatha; Iron Man and Thanos. When it comes to Marvel superheroes, one of the most cosmic clashes of all time isn’t been heroes and villains at all. Instead, it’s between two entertainment titans engaged in a decades-long war over control of Central Florida, now embroiled in an unlikely custody battle over a teenager from Brooklyn… with web-slinging powers.

For those outside theme park fandom, it’s one of the oddest bits of “fine print” in modern pop culture: that somehow, despite Disney’s $4 billion purchase of Marvel outright in 2009, the company is forbidden from using its own heroes at its flagship resort. To make matters worse, not only is Disney practically powerless in leveraging its pop-culture-dominating IP in its own theme parks, but those heroes have somehow been ceded to their comic-book-esque archnemesis just a few miles north.

So how can Universal hold Spider-Man hostage? What’s the legal asterisk that explains the slow drip of Marvel heroes into Disney Parks across the globe… including Florida? What does the future hold for Disney and Universal’s uneasy co-parenting of Marvel heroes in theme parks? Like all custody battles, it’s… complicated. So we may as well start at the beginning…

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.

This article and hundreds more are available for Gold and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Gold and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.

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June 28, 2020March 16, 2021

DISNEY’S AMERICA: Eisner’s Announced-Then-Abandoned Patriotic “Living History” Park

Though it’s easy to forget today, when Disneyland opened in 1955, Walt’s opening day speech called for it to be“dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America…”

It’s no accident that Walt’s biggest projects within Disneyland – including the park’s original themed lands – told a piece of the story of America, from our frontier past to our Space Age tomorrow; from the comforts of home on Main Street to the pop culture exoticism of what “adventure” meant to Americans in Walt’s time.

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June 9, 2020March 16, 2021

25 Years Ago, All of These Disney Parks Projects Were Cancelled. Here’s What Could’ve Been.

“We had a very big investment in Europe, and it’s difficult to deal with. I don’t know whether a private company can ever spend this kind of money.”

These words, spoken by Disney’s then-CEO Michael Eisner to the LA Times in January 1994, signaled the beginning of the end. Euro Disneyland (now Disneyland Paris) had opened to a resounding financial thud in 1992; overbuilt and undervalued by locals, hemmoraging money and embroiled in cultural controversy. After a period of growth, innovation, and sincere progress at Disney Parks across the globe, the outright financial failure of the Parisian park shook Eisner to his core. From that moment on, he systematically downsized or outright dropped any large-scale expansions happening at Disney Parks.

Across the world, budgets were slashed, maintenance was cut, and Eisner surrounded himself with penny-pinching executives who shaped Disney Parks, presiding over what many argue is the worst period in the parks’ history.

This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.

Log In or Join Now

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