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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| The future will consist of corridors.. |
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| ... endless corridors... |
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| ... 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.
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| The Pink Floyd laser show is about to start! |
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| 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.
2 comments:
Disney is a master of the adage: Do one thing, and do it well - and their one thing is entertain. Whether you are on the ride, standing in line, or just moseying along the streets you are constantly entertained and it's amazing how fast the hours fly.
This immersing-yourself-in-the-environment line waiting is now the common trend, much differently from when we were kids. I point to what Harry Potter world did at Universal Orlando, where the main ride is housed inside the Hogwarts Castle, but the line weaves its way through the recreated classrooms, offices and corridors of the school, and holograms and costumed characters performing for you along the way.
I did notice the Express Pass during my recent visit to Orlando, but never tried them, so I'm not sure exactly how they work, or their effectivness. Did you find them to be a time saver?
@Snowdropper: For the most part they were, especially if you had another ride in mind for backup. You could get the Fast Pass and then line up for the other ride. By the time you were done with that one, the designated Fast Pass times would be close and so you would just hop on over, then hop on the ride. There were a couple of times when if did get goofy, like when we got to Indiana Jones in the early afternoon and the Fast Pass return time was 10:00 pm. But that was a bit of an anomaly.
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