Disneyland Revisited

jungleis101.blogspot.com

     I recently wrote about spending the day at Disneyland for my grandson’s birthday. While I was thoroughly enjoying myself as Vaughn enjoyed himself, you have to know that I was also looking at the park from an operations perspective. So, I decided to post again on Disneyland from that point of view.
     When Disneyland first opened in 1955, admission for a day was $1 per person. That daily rate, which we paid, is currently $110 per person. Back in 1955, there were 18 attractions or rides. Today, there are over 50 attractions. Business Insider
     The most astounding phenomena I noted was that people pay hundreds of dollars per party to basically spend a lot of time, a disproportional amount of time, waiting in line. As of 4:30 today per laughingplace.com, the waits a selection of attractions or rides were: 

• 80 mins for Matterhorn 
• 80 mins for Space Mountain 
• 75 mins for It’s a Small World 
• 60 mins for Haunted Mansion 
• 35 mins for Mickey’s House and Meet Mickey 
• 30 mins for Dumbo 
• 15 mins for Mad Tea Party 
• 10 mins for King Arthur’s Carousel 

     I guestimated that each each ride lasts an average 12 mins based on a quora.com post that that Pirates of the Caribbean was the longest ride at 15 minutes. I also guessed that people spent an average of 15 minutes between rides (including restroom breaks, eating). A little spreadsheet magic revealed that a party would have to spend 10 hours at the park. (I was amazed that it was exactly 10 hours.)  One would spend 6.4 hours or 64% of that time waiting in line, 2 hours or 20% between rides, and only 1.6 hours or 16% of that time actually on a ride. To me that is crazy, but it proves just how attractive these attractions are. Folks are more than willing to pay hundreds of dollars a day to spend 84% of the time in the park going between attractions or waiting in line for an attraction.
     Of course, very few go to Disneyland to get as many rides in as they can. There is the daily parade down Main Street. There is always a song or dance act in the town square. Each section of the park has its own theater show of some sort. Lastly, there is the daily fireworks display. So, it is not all about the rides. We were there six hours. We saw the parade and went on five rides. The numbers based on my quick study resonate with me. I felt like we were easily in line at least 64% of the time. By the way, we waited in line to park the car, to catch the tram from the garage to the park, and a hour to get our tickets from the will-call window.
     Disneyland is amazing. For the number of people there, it is remarkably clean. Every worker, or cast member as everyone is called, is super friendly and helpful. All the acts are top notch and really engaging. And the attractions or rides? They are all in tip-top condition, very well designed, and super entertaining and fun. Everything is well scripted. Certainly, all the singing and dancing in the parades are scripted but one could tell just watching that every job from running a ride to emptying the trash was scripted to well designed standard operating procedures.
     I would sure love to get a back lot, behind the scenes, operations tour…