2/26 Ask Marcie Thread Answers!

[Michael]

Hi Everyone

Well, I took the best stab I could at answering all of the questions posed to me from many of you. Some information I could not share due to sensitivity issues on the part of the company. Also, please remember that it is physically impossible for anyone to know everything about Disneyland Resort. This is a large Resort made up of nearly 22,000 Cast Members that represent every facet of work and to know exactly what is going on in every corner of the property just isn’t feasible or realistic. With that said, here I go…

WorldEpcot:

(Yay! Nemo, look what you started! )

Marcie, why did Disney buy the strawberry fields (I think that they had bought them) if there arn't any plans for a third park in the near future?

Disney has long had a desire to own that last remaining large parcel of land close to the Resort, so when the chance came up in the 90’s Disney jumped at the opportunity. The long-term intent for the property is to build a 3rd theme park, however there are no plans to build any new theme parks in the U.S. anytime soon. So the land will sit empty for now. The plans could always change with new resort hotels going in instead of a theme park. Then again it could be a combination resort hotel(s) and a new theme park. At this time no development work is being done for that particular piece of property.

[Michael]

Woody:

What's up with the new Foods reorganization? I sounds rather depressing that the CM lead positions are eliminated and the scheduling has lost its flexibility.

Will food service suffer? Also, will morale get worse so many people will quit? If the plan is to make the more senior employees quit, then maybe Disney earned its spot as one of the most worker unfriendly places. (The salaried folks probably aren't doing much better.)

The new Foods plan is a test pilot that may spread across the Resort to all park locations as a new scheduling program. Basically it forces Cast Members to pick a set schedule for each week similar to what Attractions folks due for the summer (or at least what they have done as I’m not sure if they still do that form of scheduling). This new scheduling system does rob many of the lower seniority Cast Members of opportunities for a flexible schedule allowing a person to either be a busman one day and then a server the next based on operational demands.

The plan isn’t to make anyone quit, but to supposedly help make the scheduling more efficient both on staffing needs, as well as the overall operational budget. I’m not convinced it will work, but only time will tell. It shouldn’t affect the service. The various Operations units have tried process changes over the past few decades all in an effort to make things more efficient and to help save money. Some have been successful after much tweaking, but many have failed.

The bottom line, Foods is suffering under the poor leadership of Mary Nivan. Until Greg Emmer and Matt Ouimet wake up to the reality of just how bad she is for the Resort and the Foods Division overall, those poor Cast Members will have constant challenges and the guests will have average food service and experiences.

All of the work that Mike Berry did to help elevate the Food quality and experience has for the most part been all undone by this woman in only 4 years time. Some food locations have been able to escape Mary’s unfortunate hand of fate, but overall it just hasn’t been good for most locations.

[Michael]

Nemo88:

Hey Marcie!! thanks again for answering our questions!

are there any updates on the Monsters Inc construction? a few weeks ago Michael mentioned that they were having problems with the outside due to a emergency monorail exit,did they get everything worked out?

Thanks in advance!

I haven’t heard of any major challenges or problems on the project. The construction wall should be up by now and most all of the major demo inside the building is now or nearly complete.

Specially speaking of the Monorail exit I have not heard of any problems with that particular area of the attraction design for Monsters.

[Michael]

PumpkinKingJack:

Marcie can we expect any new additions to the haunted mansion other than the ones already made? Oh and that whole golden vehicle that is planned for the 50th, is Hm gonna be part of that? i hope not.

I don’t know of any current additions planned for Haunted Mansion, but that certainly doesn’t mean that this next January that there aren’t any new items added. I do know WDI had a handful of various new elements they had designed for Haunted Mansion with only 2 added this past January. It is all about funding and priorities.

And no the Golden Vehicle concept will not affect the Haunted Mansion. The program will only touch those attractions that are apart of the original roster of rides that opened on July 17, 1955.

[Michael]

DBFan117:

I know the Buzz lightyear astro blasters will be more like the ones in Tokyo and not WDW but I was wondering, will the guns be attached to the vehicle like at WDW or will you be able to lift them up freely like in Tokyo?

If you haven’t already found this out by now online or in person at the attraction, the DLR version will have guns that are tethered to the ride vehicle with approximately 2 feet of cord allowing the guests to freely move the gun in any direction. The WDW version has the guns affixed to the ride vehicle only allowing slight turns to the left and right and up and down.

[Jennifer]

wendydarling:

Marcie, where is Melvin from the Bear Country Jamboree in Pooh? I've looked and looked and can't find it!

The three heads are located on an overhead wall as you leave the dream sequence room where you see all of the crazy colors and characters. As you leave the big room and see in front of you the images on the wall and hear a voice calling for Pooh to wake up turn immediately around and look up and you should see them hanging above the track.

Once you get to Pooh sticking out of the wall with the honey all around him you’ve gone too far and won’t be able to see them.

[Jennifer]

MattO:

When will the Enchanted Tiki House open?

The current rehab schedule shows the Tiki Room reopening on March 11th.

[Jennifer]

DCADude:

hi marcie I was wondering what is next for DCA? is monsters inc. coming? is incredibles coming? and also do you know anything on how the block party floats look? thank you very much for your time!-josh

Monsters, Inc. is definitely coming to DCA sometime in early 2006. There are a couple of major attraction ideas that are currently under consideration for DCA and one of them may include the Incredibles, but nothing is even close to being a reality at this time. Hopefully over the next year or so the next E ticket for DCA will eventually move from blue sky concept consideration to a reality in final design and then maybe sometime in 2006 into early stages of construction. I wouldn’t anticipate a new major attraction for DCA until late 2007 or early 2008 from the way things are going right now between WDI and DLR discussions.

The Block Party floats look rather big and very fun. This isn’t a tiny parade/street show by any stretch of the word. None of the floats have been delivered to the Resort yet, so I haven’t seen the actual floats in person. I’m looking forward to seeing them when they do begin to arrive.

[Jennifer]

grvtydefy:

Thanks so much for doing this Marcie! I was wondering, do you have any idea when the new Tomorrowland paint scheme will be complete? Or, at least enough of the scaffolding down so that we can really get a feel for the new look of the land? Thanks!

The new paint design should be done by the end of April, with large portions of the land completed as early as Easter week.

[Jennifer]

jrriddle:

Yes. Thank you Marcie!
I'll second this one. And besides new paint any news on pumping some life back into this area (besides the Nemo/Subs, Cars/Autopia rumours)?

There is a 5 year revitalization plan to help pump new life back into the land. That plan involves the Rocket Rods beamway, the upper deck where the Observatron is located now, and other minor tweaks and changes to the area. Unfortunately I cannot share any of the ideas being considered at this time, but I can assure you that between DLR senior level executives and WDI the desire is strong to bring life back to the land. And they want it sooner rather than later. Of course, budgets and timing with the 50th festivities will dictate what can be done over the next 18 months.