By booking my Disneyland ticket online, I managed to go to 2 parks for the price of 1. I had to print out my ticket at home and show it at the ticketing booths. Unfortunately, the confirmation emails from Disney were really confusing. They sent me 3 emails and while they attached my confirmation letter. I did not know that I had to log onto their website to print out my own ticket. Spent 2 hours, 3 queues before I figured it out. I was almost in tears at the happiest place on earth. Haiz
I know that Disneyland is hyped as the best theme park in the world. Honestly speaking, I found that the rides were about the same as what we have at home minus the long insane queues, the crucial difference was the Disneyland Experience.
Disneyland was a true lesson in hospitality, experience and branding. Despite my 2 hours - 3 queues experience, I was truly impressed by the number of counters and personnel at the gate for crowd control. While waiting for all my rides - a long queue was the only constant, considering the fact that the key customers are thousands of crying toddlers and preteens, it is a feat by itself to keep them happy while queuing.
I started with the Walt Disney Studios first with their show - Videotique
Armageddon - Special Effects
Aerosmith - Rock & Roller Coaster
Art of Disney Animation. This was a series of shows portraying the classic Disney movies and character development during its movies. Where classic movies evoked in all of us, happiness, sadness, hope, courage, then it occurred to me... OMG ! This is where all my values and ideals come from .. TV !!! ......... haiz .. by then i decided that I was too jaded and cynical for the Disney experience.
Went off to the Disneyland themepark and took the Disney Railway for a spin ~
Then I found Fantasyland, it was so cute and nostalgic, that i fell back in love with Disney all over again.
Then checked out the Sleeping Beauty's castle
Disney Parade.. I felt kinda sad for the people in the parade, doing this day in day out with faked animated joy... think of all the bustling prozac sales to Disney staff !
Really cute Buzz Lightyear ride at Tomorrowland
Frontier land was totally decked out in Halloween celebrations.. with that in mind.. i just had to go to the Haunted Mansion !
My last ride of the night as the staff started to herd people around like sheep to the entrance.. Indy !!
As Disneyland starts to close, I wanted to buy myself some souvenirs. Some truly Paris Disneyland stuff, then..... ALL THE ITEMS WERE LABELED MADE IN CHINA !! They didn't even bothered to hide it, it was there for all to see in big golden stickers. :(
Things that Disney really impressed me,
a) Making queuing part of the experience, each queue was about 30 mins long, they managed to make queuing part of the experience by including goodies such as displays of autographed guitars by rock & roll legends, cute briefings by staff. In fact, the actual rides were not very long, most of them under 5 minutes.
b) Catering to its key customers - families. I saw so many families lugging their toddlers over to Disneyland. If i was a 3 year old, no matter how much fun i had at Disneyland, I wouldn't remember it 10 years down the road. But the families were happy, there were lots of food stands and little amusements around to keep the kids fed.
c) Crowd control, the large amount of staff around the theme park were amazing. It was truly operations management 101 in real life.
d) Branding, by utilizing its key brands, they have made a normal roller coaster ride into a "Disney experience". By repackaging the US small town experience, they are exporting a slice of US culture repainted in beautiful surreal technicolor.
e) Milking it for all its worth, the Made in China stuff, the Disney Village to milk the customers as they stream out of the park after 6pm.. Well done !
I'm glad that I went to Disney... a couple more years, and i would have truly been jaded. But it was fun ! I loved it ! I might even go back again to a different Disneyland.. !
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