Wednesday, March 03, 2010

one of the smartest things they ever did

i'm a follower of the disney parks blog and love reading about everything going on at the parks. it's a nice change of pace from the regular round of blogs that i read, and they occasionally feature some great photographs or cool videos.

one of today's posts caught my eye, and i had to go back and read my post from the magic kingdom to see if i wrote about why it grabbed my attention. i hadn't--apparently i had only told this story in person with our family and friends---so let me share now about justin's desire to relive his childhood and our decision that we weren't bringing children to disney until they were at least school age.

the magic kingdom didn't actually have enough to keep us busy for the entire day. so by mid-afternoon, we decided to do some of the activities that had more of a wait than we were willing to sacrifice earlier in the day. for me, that was taking a picture with ariel.

for justin, that was riding dumbo.

through out the magic kingdom (and all of the other parks) disney has done a lot to make sure that the wait is "part of the attraction." whether it be detailed maps of nepal on expedition everest or huge tinkertoy sets for the toy story ride in hollywood studios, there was something to look at and to keep kids entertained.

except for dumbo.

dumbo was a back-and-forth line of chains and poles, folded up four or five times on itself. no tv screens overhead showing a video on loop, no sturdy dividers between the lines to prevent kids from swinging back and forth, and certainly nothing to keep the attention of the hundred or so people in line.

we had been blessed with 15 minute waits on most of the rides our entire trip. this time--45 minutes.

for a 3 minute ride.

on dumbo.

(we took a break from kiddie rides after that.)

now, disney has finally taken a step in the right direction. on the latest blog post featuring the expansion of fantasyland, they've taken dumbo and put it in it's own area!

and added a 2nd dumbo ride!

with the line inside a tent that features interactive games and air condition!
genius, my friends. pure genius.