Written by Kevin Baxter
Published: July 11, 2004 at 1:27 AM
I mentioned previously that California Adventure has gotten very little help from their new Tower of Terror. Well, things are getting worse and worse. DCA managed only 16,500 guests on July 4. Considering that was not only a Sunday but a huge holiday also, those numbers are pathetic.
And it just isn't DCA that's suffering. Disneyland, which has consistently managed to attract large crowds, got its first sub-40,000-guests Saturday in more than 20 years a few weeks ago. Then came the disastrous Independence Day weekend. Instead of the 70K average the park usually pulls in on the Fourth, DL barely dragged in 50K.
It's obvious that Southern Californians now expect Disney to offer discounts, and if they don't then people just stay away. In fact, it seems the only locals bothering with the parks are AP owners who cannot be discouraged from renewing their APs. Disney has recently raised AP prices and increased the number of blackout days so the number of APs would lower before the 50th Anniversary. Numbers have actually increased to more than 600K, which is a record for DLR.
One thing that may decrease numbers to DL is yet ANOTHER accident on Big Thunder Mountain. Disney mouthpieces are seriously downplaying the accident, but three people were injured, which makes this more serious than the previous two-train accident, which happened without riders.
Still, this makes three accidents in less than a year, with the first causing one death. People have not forgotten that one, and this accident will make it much harder for people to forget it. Many visitors already steer clear of the ride, and this accident will undoubtedly add more to the better-safe-than-sorry set. Even if most visitors haven't heard of either of the death-free accidents, they are still going to be suspicious of the ride being down yet again. Not to mention how suspicious people will be of Disney, which seems completely uncapable of running this ride without mishaps. Even though early reports have this as yet another operator error, people are starting to wonder why Disney puts so much responsibility in the hands of minimum-wage workers.
The entire Disneyland Resort is suffering, even as the new TDI regime is starting to fix it up. While the discounts and the excessive APs aren't helping, neither is Disney's slow attraction-building schedule. Disney should take this chance to immediately demolish BTMR and build a major new E-Ticket in the area. Buzz Lightyear and a not-so-new Space Mountain aren't going to keep the crowds coming back after the 50th, if they even show up for that.
secondly,I think there is more then just discounts that are keeping ppl away this year.I believe many factors play into it.For starters,Space Mnt (one of the most popular resort rides) is closed until 2005,and the word is definatly out.
also,many tourists probably realize that next year is a huge year promising new parades,fireworks,Space,Buzz etc and Im sure many many many ppl have postponed going to the resort until 2005 to expierence all of this,especially those out of towner (once in a lifetime) visitors who really have to maximize thier trips.
overall I think your article is overly doom and gloom,while I dont think things are perfect at the Disneyland Resort,I also dont think they are nearly as bad as made to seem in this opinion piece.
As for the being more likely to be hurt or killed on the LA/Orange County freeways comment.
Tell that to the families of people injured and/or killed aboard amusement attractions! They'd be glad to hear it. :-/
Cast Members at the Florida property are paid the same as their Anaheim counterparts, often have to work longer hours with larger crowds in more uncomfortable conditions and till manage to maintain a safety record that is second-to-none.
It has nothing to do with what they are paid. Eisner, Pressler and Harriss immasculated the budgets for maintenence and operations to the point where training that once took place over a week or more now has been condensed into two days...a two-day Traditions seminar is now down to 4 hours.
Employees who are adequately trained and prepared for emergency situations will do their jobs well, regardless of how much they are paid. I'm not concerned so much that they hire high-school and college kids to run these rides. I'm concerned that the ride has crashed a third time after the DOSH has TWICE mandated that the staff be retrained. I'm concerned that after the two previous crashes, only the staff who were working those nights required retraining, rather than the entire crew.
I'm concerned that Ouimet and Emmer have not yet reinstated older, better methods of training. Although i can only assume this would mean having to go to Rasulo for more funding, which would mean a fruitless battle against Eisner.
There are a lot of factors involved in freeway deaths--factors that can vary every time you get on the road: weather, road conditions, vehicle conditons, a driver's own awareness, not to mention the performance of driver's around him/her. The average automobile is designed for practical use as a transport, and can therefore be piloted just about anywhere depending on the make. There are no tracks to keep your vehicle in place--whomever is behind the wheel is in constant control at every moment.
On the other hand, a coaster is designed not to be practical, but to be entertaining. It is desgined to be "death-defying" to appease the human psyche of doing incredible things while still maintaining a level of acceptable safety. Scientific design is used to assure its performance is consistant despite factors such as weight of the riders or weather conditions. The train also runs on a track and multiple safety devices are installed to make sure said coaster doesn't do anything that could potentially threaten the occupants. Beyond the lift hill, the coaster is at the mercy of physics--there are no brakes until the train reaches the brake station and no one person in the coaster can control the train. If an accident is to be avoided, it must be done by ride ops before the coaster leaves the station or lift hill.
BTMRR at DL opened in 1979 and has been operating ever since. With the exception of an accident involving a young boy whose foot was crushed as it entered the loading station (guest fault), there have been THREE accidents in LESS THAN a year, two which can be attributed to operator failure and one due to poor maintainence. Whether you want to accept it or not, something is wrong when an attraction can go TWENTY-FOUR YEARS without an accident, yet have THREE reported accidents and a death all in a matter of months.
What happens on the freeway is out of Disney's hands--everybody must take responsiblity for themselves. But what happens on a Disney attraction is the responsibility of the company. It's ludicrous to think otherwise. It's all apples and oranges, or in this cause, cars and coasters.
As for the differences (or lack thereof) in pay between Orlando and Anaheim, let's keep in mind that if you earn $7.00 an hour in Kissimmee, Fla., you'd have to earn $9.40 an hour in Anaheim to maintain the same standard of living (according to the Realtor.com salary calculator).
That's a crock. The truth is that when we merge onto the freeway we know there's a possiblity that we may skid off the road, get cut off, have a tire pop, etc...
When a family boards an amusement ride they shouldn't have to worry about any of those factors! They're there for a fun time, not to worry about derailing, not braking, etc.. Now that's truth!
My first day of in-park training, our coordinator said something to us that has always stuck with me...he said that people come into these parks to escape reality. Once they enter the gates of the park, it's the cast member's responsibility to make sure that reality does not intrude on the guest experience.
Guess what, Eisner...DEATH AND INJURY are big, cold, wet bitchslaps of reality intruding on these folk's experience.
(simple minded business tirade over)
Thank you Captain Obvious. You're clueless as to what myself and, Mr. Hitt are trying to get across. That's okay though. It's understanding that makes it possible for people like us to deal with responses like yours.
I understand what both sides are trying to say here, and both are correct in their own way.
Three accidents in a year is a definate indicator that there are severe problems SOMEWHERE - reinforcing what many of us have heard/seen for quite some time about the deterioration of rides and training at DL. It is likely a combination of issues that lead the ride to this place - that's up to OSHA to say.
It is clear that if these things were a higher priority at DL, as they should be, these accidents would not be as likely to happen.
The poster you have been bashing is also correct - you cannot legislate accidents out of existance - accidents are a fact of life. You can prepare for and attempt to prevent them, but there will never ever be a "100% safe" ride. Heck, a light could fall on your head while riding the Haunted Mansion, for example.
HOWEVER, in this case, it seems as if Disneyland may have not done the proper maintainance, repair, and training to keep these risk levels low.
You are all right, as I said, in your own way - but perhaps rational discussion is better than throwing playground insults around. Just a thought.
I can't speak for Alex, but I think he may be thinking of cables, not rope, significantly strong enough. As a standard, Alex, all coasters in general are built with solid, steel connections, designed to allow each coaster portion to take the hills, curves or inversions smoothly as possible.
As for the lame LA freeways argument... Considering MILLIONS of people use those freeways every day, can they even be compared? BTMR gets about 2000 an hour, so maybe 20K riders ride it in a day. It would take about a year's worth of rides to even be able to compare it to one day on the LA freeway system.
But like someone else said, we don't drive the freeways without understanding that something may go wrong. We don't go to theme parks for that feeling, and to just ACCEPT accidents, no matter how occasional they may be, makes it even more likely for these accidents to occur. If we don't have outrage for these rides, and if we just continue to ride extremely problematic ones, then theme parks like Disneyland won't bother to make rides as safe as possible. Do you want theme parks to become like the car industry? Where future payoffs are preferable to expensive safety measures?
Not to mention how much it would actually cost to tear down that massive concrete structure. You know they don't just throw away money like that. Plus, Disney would actually have to have a replacement attraction ready to go into immediate construction. No use having a giant hole where a major, 100-ft tall E-Ticket use to stand.
The incident last April with trains colliding was caused by cast members (Not the ride itself) who didn't reset the ride properly, and failed to identify the location of all the trains. This last one however, seems more like a computer glitch.
All it needs is a new operating system (if that), and for Disney to step up in maintenance
Now, if it was an old, forgotten attraction in a dark corner of the park, it might be different. But this is a ride that Disneyland is known for... (that cost them a pretty penny to build back in the 70s as well.) It still has another decade left in it, and I'm sure Disney would wrather leave it than spending the money to demolish it and building something new and expensive.
I'm sure in a few months it will bounce right back, and by next summer it will be like nothing happened from the public's viewpoint...
Bottom line, the park attendence issue (assuming that the numbers posted are correct) are more likely an issue of people waiting for their favorite rides to come back than it is a safety concern. Considering the fact that DL has gotten rid of arguably their most popular attraction and still pulled in a number of guests that any other park would be happy to get, shows that the popularity is still there.
PS-Thanks for the confirmation on the Buzz Lightyear ride coming to DL! This ride was great in Orlando and I can't wait to see it added to the DL arsenal!
PSS- Thanks to Ms. Holtsclaw for putting things into prospective on her posting.
PSSS- Anyone heard anything about 2 tracks being put into Space Mountain in DL (like Space Mountain in Orlando)?
But, Marco, and everyone else reading this, grow up. No one, repeat no one deserves to get hurt on a theme park ride. How many times have I written this before?
I want this site to be open to everyone and to all points of view, but my patience with inarticulate, immature roller coaster junkies who have little personal experience in either theme parks or society in general is wearing very, very thin.
It seems to me that Disney is refusing to pay for the cost of a new program or sensors or whatever is needed to remove operator error from the equation. As I see it, they either completely redo the whole safety system or they destroy it. If they can completely gut Space Mountain, they can do the same for BTMR.
The proper response following such a situation is to reprogram the software to further "idiot-proof" it, given the "bug" the clueless operator discovered, and to remove or retrain the operator.
I do have to agree that Disney is having at least a few problems with its parks, though. We just got back from Disneyland, and its unbelievable how much is closed down. Space Mountain isn't reopening until next year, and Thunder Mountain is down for the time being. Also, the castle is closed, and it seems like they took the higher towers off of it, the Tommorrowland Arcade is closed, and they were doing something with a few of the shops on Main Street.
And as for "idiot-proofing" the rides, maybe they should make it so that the ride can fix itself, and only when there is a bigger problem would the ride operators do anything. At least it would solve the problem of clueless operators.
While the accident on btmr is bad news for disney. escpeically that with it being down lines will be longer, i for noe wouldnt be afraid in the least to ride it. You are much more likely to be hurt or killed on the roadways of la/orange county than on any theme park ride.