Disneyland. Part two, Princess for a day

In part one I talked about the queue design in Disneyland. In part two, I want to talk about the employees of the park, or as they are known, cast members. The cast members at the Magic Kingdom are a special group of people. They do a good job in making the experience special, not by being all loud and boisterous, but in small subtle ways, and it was the subtlety that made it even more amazing. When we first walked onto Main Street, one of the first things I noticed, as did my daughter, was a row of cast members in uniform greeting us with giant, over-sized Mickey Mouse hands; a nice touch. When it came time to go on the rides, I was impressed the the efficiency and care taken by the operators. As a veteran of summer expositions populated by the good folks of Conklin et al., it felt nice to walk the park without being subjected to the "carnie wave" beckoning me, come hither. Some rides had pre-recorded messages for the riders, but a good number of them had the operators giving instructions in their own unique way. At one point we passed by the Buzz Lightyear ride and noticed it wasn't operating. There were cast members standing in front of the entrance announcing their regrets for this inconvenience. One cast member, when asked why the ride was not operating, confidently and without pause, reported that they had run out of batteries and were currently searching for the right ones to replace them; that made me smile.

First, wardrobe. Next, make-up...

Without question, though, the highlight of our interaction with the cast members, and indeed the highlight for me this entire trip was when our four-year-old daughter got to dress up as Princess Aurora for a day. My wife and I had arranged this to be a surprise for our daughter, so that morning she woke up to find a package at our hotel room door from Aurora. When she opened it, she found a Sleeping Beauty dress and crown that my sister, who had recently visited Walt Disney World had generously bought for this occasion. As we made our way into the park that morning, I caught onto something that had I had noticed our first day in the park when my daughter had worn a Rapunzel dress. It started with the cast member scanning our tickets. As good mornings were exchanged there was suddenly, "... and good morning princess! I hope you enjoy your day." Much like the batteries comment from earlier, this was done confidently and without pause. The next surprise was a princess make over that my wife had arranged at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. My daughter was attended to by a Fairy Godmother in training as they did her hair and make-up. Whilst in the boutique, my wife was addressed as Your Highness (which she loved!) and was asked if "the King" would be attending to see the princess as well. Again, it's the little things.

It's hard work being a princess

The king gets to see his princess

When the girls had finished at the boutique, we met up again and made our way through the park. Every time we went on a ride or interacted with a cast member my daughter was addressed, not just as princess, but as Princess Aurora. Usually my daughter becomes quite shy when this much attention is given to her, but even she could not help but smile.

The next big thing on our list was a lunch with the princesses. This is when the princesses come around to each table during the meal and give you opportunity to take photos with them. Each princess who came by was beautifully done up and played the part very well. Princess Aurora (the official one, not our daughter) said, "Oh look, it's my twin." when she came to our table. I must take this opportunity to mention Belle who gave special attention to our 22-month-old son, even giving him a kiss on his head.

Her Majesty, The Queen, flanked by the Princesses Aurora.

After lunch we continued with our rides and such, all the while being reminded that we were in the presence of royalty. This happened to to be our day to see the World of Color water show and the fireworks display, so by the end of the evening we had one tired princess. We knew, though, that she had a great day; so much so that the next day we were dealing with a bit of a princess hangover and insisted on wearing her Rapunzel dress the last day at Disneyland. 

As we spent our last day at Disneyland, I was once again impressed at how the cast members zeroed in on the purple dress and addressed our daughter as Rapunzel.

The perfect cure for a princess hangover? A giant Mickey Mouse cookie!

I can see how some might find this all very silly. Why have I made such a big deal over something as simple as employees calling my daughter a princess? All I can say is there was something very special that I saw in the face of my daughter when she came out of the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. Something that carried on through the day as she was recognized as Princess Aurora. There was something to her smile that showed through the usual shyness that overtakes her when strangers pay so much attention to her. It's for that smile that I thank the cast members of Disneyland.

For a father, the smile is all that counts.

Disneyland. Part one, The coolest place to queue up!

My family just got back from a trip to the Magic Kingdom! It was a great trip and there are any number of topics that I could talk about, but I have decided to focus on two that really stood out for me. Queues and Cast Members.

First, queues. Disneyland is a place where the art of the queue has been mastered. You may think that I am referring to the wonder of the Fast Pass; the ingenious system of getting tickets for a ride in advanced so that you can come back later in the day and skip to the front of the line. Indeed I was impressed with that, but I was more impressed with the design and architecture of the queue itself. I have two examples in mind. The Hollywood Tower of Terror and Space Mountain.

The Hollywood Tower of Terror is free fall type of ride that involves a car that gets raised up, and then drops, and then gets raised up again, and then drops, etc. It's a simple idea. This is a popular ride and each time I went on the estimated queue was around 30-40 min. Now, Disneyland, what can you do to entertain me whilst I wait? Well, first there's the facade, which is much more than simple flat frontage to hide the mechanics of the ride. It is, at least externally, a recreated full-sized hotel building. As you wind yourself around the stanchions you are greeted by music from the '30s piped through the speakers.

I can't wait to get settled in!

When you get inside the building itself you get to see this wonderful rendition of the lobby of this glamorous hotel way beyond its prime. At this point you are ushered into a study by a cast member in period dress.

Funny, it doesn't quite look like the brochures.

When everyone has filed into the study there is clap of thunder, a flash of lightning, all goes dark, and then a small TV flickers on in the corner with an into to the Twilight Zone in which the tale of the hotel is spun and the audience is informed that they are now the players who will see this story through to the end. Keep in mind, we haven't reach the actual ride yet.

That's the problem with hotel TV; nothing new is on.

The TV shuts off and then the queue continues through a set of doors into and area that is made up to be the boiler room of the hotel. You continue to snake around the interior with the lights flickering, an old radio on a desk playing static between stations, a pipes leaking water, the hum of machinery, and a set of maintenance elevators along the wall. All the while you taking in the amazing dedication to detail and mood created by your surroundings.

Are we there yet?

... oh, and through these elevator doors is the actual ride. Almost forgot about that.

Then there's Space Mountain. While the Tower of Terror is a fairly recent ride, Space Mountain is one of the classics that I remember from when I was a kid. The average wait time for this icon was between 50-65 min.(ouch!) Although the design of the ride has changed little, the surrounding architecture has gone though modifications over the years. The resulting structure is quite imposing. If the building were to be gutted, I could easily see it being used as a convention centre.

The location of this year's SAQ (Society of Appreciators of Queues) Convention

The queue is mostly outside the building, giving one plenty of time to appreciate futuristic spires, buttresses, and girders. As the queue continues inside, the launch announcements come over the speakers as one files down corridors that are sectioned off and labeled numerically (01, 02,03, etc.), with periodic screens showing technical displays.

The future will consist of corridors..

... endless corridors...

... and displays.

Finally one enters the launch bay (the ride loading area) and sees a model of a ship hanging in the center. As you get strapped into the car and move forward along the track, the last sight you see before entering the darkness (the entire ride is in the dark, lit only by a simulated star field) is a control booth above manned by cast members.

The Pink Floyd laser show is about to start!

Space, the black light frontier.

There were many other examples of creative queuing around the park; enough to convince myself that there must exist a group of people who show up not to experience the ride so much as to experience the queue. The secret is to incorporate the queue in such a way as to make it part of the ride itself. As you file along you are in a sense moving through and introduction and rising action of a story that ultimately results in the climax that is the ride itself.

Now I am not saying that such design alleviated the pain of queuing altogether, but I must admit that it did give me a feeling of anticipation that bolstered my ability to shuffle along with my fellow queue mates as shackled livestock to the slaughter, albeit in a kick ass abattoir.

Next: Part two, in which a commoner becomes a princess, much to the delight of her father.