Interesting interview with C. Harris. link Suspect there is a fair bit of cheerleading here, but she does sound pretty bullish about DL's 50th (plus a few other excerpts I found interesting).
And lastly on an oft mentioned topic
Look forward to the next installment. Comments anyone?
A couple of DCA references.Itll be the biggest thing in our lifetime is all I can say (laughs). Youre going to have to get ready to live here, Doobie, because therell be so much going on. I think probably the best way I can characterize it is 03 and 04 will be leading up to the 50th. Were clearly going to be having so many additions to the Disneyland Resort between 03 and 04. But the 50th will be the biggest event in our companys history. It truly will be therere more ideas than you can ever do. In fact, Ill tell you, at the last creative session we had there were so many ideas that we actually have a couple of huge ideas that weve now put in for 06, 07 and 08. What were going to do is over the coming months is really get this nailed as to what we will actually have so that we can cut down on some level of the speculation. But all I can tell you is it will be spectacular
Any chance her phrasing people wanted more Disney is her way of saying they know people want them to get back to building more Disney quality attractions?immediately go out and poll our guests about what additional things they want. And overwhelmingly people said they wanted more Disney and more things for their little ones to do
At least good to hear them acknowledge that ToT and Indy experiences are what people want.Staying close to the guests is such an important aspect of it. I would say that in the five years Ive been here at Disneyland, the number one attraction people have asked about is when are we going to bring Tower of Terror here. And to me personally, but beyond that, when weve done focus groups, anecdotal or whatever, and say "what do you like best about a Disney experience?" Tower of Terror comes up as one of the top ones. I would say since Indiana Jones, in our company, Tower of Terror probably has had the most enthusiasm by our guests at large and consequently thats why we wanted to bring it here
We keep hearing about these high scores. Here she talks about the Resort and not DCA specifically???how do you personally rate the overall success? CH: Weve hosted more guests than ever before. Disneys California Adventure is the number two tourist attraction behind Disneyland in terms of guests visited. The Resort in total, I can tell you - as we do focus groups and interview our guests as they leave the satisfaction scores are astronomical. The overall guest ratings are in the high 90 percentiles
And lastly on an oft mentioned topic
This type of response should tell you all you need to know.An area that has come under scrutiny and criticism the past few years is just the general maintenance and upkeep of the park. Do you think that is a justified criticism? CH: I think everybodys got their point of view so thats the thing that I respect. Everybodys got their point of view
Look forward to the next installment. Comments anyone?