I've observed Disney surveying their guests all the time. What have they gleaned from all that data? That guests at the Disneyland Resort want fewer quality restaurants and fewer quality cast members? More Disney characters wearing cute costumes? More plastic buckets filled with cotton candy?

It frustrates me to no end that Disney didn't stick to the original 'semi-sophisticated, laid-back, adult-centric' park that isn't going to appeal to every single person in the free world. Instead, after the Park had been open for seemed like about 3 days, they trotted out more Donald, Daisy, and Max, they added craft corner locations to appease Jonny and Jessica's pushy parents, they traded out "Eureka!" one of the finest Disney parades I've ever seen, with a recycled version of The Electrical Parade, and began to water down the whole concept. They moved away from what makes "Golden Dreams" such a powerful film.

Simply put? Disney caved. They crumbled. They got scared.

And when you work from a place of fear, you start asking more and more questions in an effort to appease everybody

'Do you like this attraction?"

"What do you think we should do next?"

"Are your kids happy now?'

"'Are you happy?"

And you get rushed-into-production shows like 'LuminAria.' You get an expensive re-do of 'Steps in Time' which ends up closing a month later. You add the tired-on-opening-day 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire,' and you bring in more 'KidCOT'-type craft corners, and thrown together 'Monsters, Inc.' character show.

 

They've treated DCA like a television show. It's a different approach than Disneyland, has a different vibe, it's rated PG-13, and now they're scrambling to do re-edits, and re-shoots, and re-writes, and re-casting, to try to make it into what they think people think they want.

And trying to change it to a G-Rating in the process.

Change, yes. I'm all for change. Change is good. I've spent the last 34 years watching Disneyland change and grow - I can handle change.

But whatever happened to letting an entertainment enterprise find its' audience?

 

I wonder, as Disney builds more theme parks, if Management will take more time to plan a park, and, then, when completed, will stand in support of that Park. With the lessons learned on Disney's California Adventure, the big question is::

Will Disney change?