Catering to Your Audience Part 1: Hotels

First of a multipart series comparing and contrasting Walt Disney World and Disneyland.

In the 1950s, when Walt Disney was constructing Disneyland, Anaheim was a small town. Prior to construction, the Disneyland site was an orange grove. Once the park showed signs of success, the area sprung to life. Hotels and restaurants popped up all around Disneyland. The park was soon trapped in the rapid development and had little room to expand. These circumstances were the impetus for Walt Disney to acquire the vast amount of land where Walt Disney World currently sits. Walt Disney World's "blessing of size" was designed to keep the outside world out. Once inside the Disney World compound, everything is under Disney's control.

Since the 50s, Anaheim has grown around Disneyland. Although recently Disneyland has expanded by adding California Adventure and their own Downtown Disney to create more of a resort, it's still very much a local theme park. Only three hotel choices exist if you wish to stay on-site: Paradise Pier, the Disneyland Hotel, and the Grand Californian (which is more similar to Wilderness Lodge than the Grand Floridian at Walt Disney World). Because it is surrounded by a bustling tourism area, Disneyland has a Good Neighbor Hotel program. Hotels that are a part of this program can be booked directly from the Disneyland website or by calling the reservations line. The Good Neighbor hotels have, for the most part, more reasonable rates than the on-site hotels, whose rates range from expensive to really expensive. Guests of these hotels receive similar benefits to the guests who stay at Disney's hotels.

Walt Disney World, on the other hand, was designed to be an international vacation destination. There are 24 Disney owned and operated on-site hotels (including Disney Vacation Club resorts). 10 additional hotels are also located on Disney property. Even though the 10 other hotels are considered on Disney property, guests at these hotels do not receive the same benefits that guests of Disney-owned hotels receive (except for the Swan and Dolphin). The price range for the on-site hotels range from reasonable to ridiculous. Many other off-site options do exist; however their distance from the Walt Disney World parks and lack of on-site amenities makes these choices less desirable.

Walt Disney World's size gives it more control over where guests stay and generally secludes itself from the outside. Disneyland, realizing the cards it has been dealt, has embraced the outside community and allowed the surrounding hotels to take part in Disneyland's incentive package. Next time, I'll go into the tickets that can be purchased for the two resorts and a similar contrast between Disney World and Disneyland will develop.

(Link to original photo. I took the photo above on my last trip to WDW.)

Welcome to DisneyBiz!

Here on DisneyBiz, I'm planning to take a look at the reasons behind why Disney makes its decisions. Does a move make financial sense, especially in the long term? Personally, I like to see companies make decisions for the long term instead of quick flashes in the pan. Disney has its share of both; strategic long-term decisions such as the recently announced Fantasyland expansion (which I may cover in a future post), and short-term quick money plans like the return of Captain EO (covered below).

I'm not looking to bore everyone by bogging this down in heavy finance; it's my intention to make this a blog that everyone can read and enjoy. Think of it as a business version of Innoventions; educational and entertaining.

(I took the photo above. Photography is one of my hobbies; here's a link to my Flickr photostream.)

Captain EO Returns

Tomorrow at Disneyland, Captain EO returns to Tomorrowland. The business reasons are obvious:

• The country is currently obsessed with Michael Jackson.
• It's an easy swap; just pull out the Honey, I Shrunk the Audience film and put Captain EO back in. Also, dress up the 3-D theater in a Captain EO theme.
• Make some special merchandise to sell.

Seems foolproof, right? From a business perspective, it mostly is (more on the mostly part in a minute). Honey, I Shrunk the Audience isn't pulling in large crowds; it's been long overdue for a replacement. Also, Disney hopes to pull in a few extra people looking for an M.J. fix and sell them a t-shirt.

While the business reasons are sound, here's my question: when has Disney ever reverted an attraction to its previous incarnation? I know, just look at my previous post. Let's exclude fireworks and parades from this; Walt Disney World used Fantasy in the Sky for special occasions for years, and the Main Street Electrical Parade already returned to WDW once. Generally, Disney is not a company that goes backward, for better or for worse. For example, Stitch's Great Escape has been dogged by Disney fans since it opened. Why not restore the attraction to its prior incarnation, Alien Encounter? Because Disney likes to move forward.

Finally, here are two reasons why I think this is mostly foolproof:

1. I don't think Captain EO is going to hold people's interest in the long run. While people are interested in Michael Jackson right now, how long is it going to last?
2. M.J.'s background is questionable. While some will come to Disneyland to see Captain EO, others may avoid Disneyland because the attraction has returned. Honestly, I think both factions are very small and at worst will cancel each other out, but it is a risk.

What are your thoughts on Captain EO's return?

(Thanks to coconut wireless on Flickr for the image above)

Summer Nightastic! and Wizards

On February 10, Disney announced "Summer Nightastic!" is coming to Walt Disney World this June. Three attractions headline the event:

• The return of the Main Street Electrical Parade. Except for a hiatus for slightly less than two years, SpectroMagic! has entertained audiences when the sun goes down since 1991. Word has it that the floats currently in use in Disney's California Adventure are being brought over to the Magic Kingdom.
• "New" Magic Kingdom fireworks. In reality, this will be a renamed "Magic, Music and Mayhem" from the Pirate and Princess Party, perimeter fireworks included.
• New drop sequence and special effects for Tower of Terror.

Why is Disney World putting forth the effort to push special events for this summer? Two words: Harry Potter. That's right, the long awaited Wizarding World of Harry Potter is opening at Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure.

In my opinion, this is Disney's way of saying "Hey, we're doing things too!" The items above aren't going to cost Disney that much money.

• The Main Street Electrical Parade floats have been running in Disney's California Adventure since 2001. Just truck them back over to Florida. By the way, where are the floats that used to run in Florida?
  
• The fireworks show has already been developed and programmed; just purchase all the correct mortars and run the show.
  
• A new drop sequence for Tower of Terror is also a programming exercise; the ability to change the drop sequence easily is why the Tower has received so many updates. New special effects can mean a lot of things, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that it's a low-cost exercise.

While I do think this is a generally a good thing, if Disney were to make a move in response to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, it should have been made a long time ago and on a grand scale. The Fantasyland expansion would have done well. Instead, in 2007 Disney World was putting Monsters, Inc. into Tomorrowland.

What's your opinion? Is Disney taking the right approach with Summer Nightastic? Should they have responded to Harry Potter when it was announced?

Image courtesy of Joe Penniston (Express Monorail on Flickr). Original photo link.