They work unbelievably hard to maintain the magic at Disney. You'll notice that it's nearly impossible to actually see anything broken, worn down, or trashy. The place is spotless. The upkeep is impeccable. Even keeping the place clean is carefully orchestrated so as not to affect the magical sense of the park. You don't see, for example, a cart full of trash bags - that all happens underground. You don't see employees entering and exiting the park - they enter at a separate location out of the public eye. I remember when I went to Disneyworld with the OCHS band my sophomore year. When performance time neared, we had to EXIT the park, load up the buses, drive around to the employee entrance, get dressed, and then enter the park through a performance staging area. When we were done performing, it was the same in reverse. We were never allowed to be seen in our band uniforms apart from actually being a part of Disney's performance (actually performing). All of the preparation takes place out of the public view, so that you never see a Disney character out of character per se; you never see a dwarf with the head portion of their costume off for example. Everything is always perfect. It's just amazing.
Another thing that amazed me was the music in the park. You may have noticed that there is almost always music playing around you, and yet you can never find a spot where you hear two opposing music streams. Somehow they have coordinated ALL of that to be seamless throughout the entire park. Even during the parades, the music is seamless as it arrives and passes or as the various floats with different music pass through. For the life of me I don't know how they do it! Also, you just don't see speakers ANYWHERE. The audio sources are hidden. It's crazy.
The creative detail is perhaps what impresses me the most. Near one of the bakeries at Disneyland in California, right off Main Street, up on the second floor, there is what looks like an apartment. The sounds coming out of that "apartment", complete with window motion (shadows) is that Goofy is living up there - watching TV, showering, cooking etc. You could pass through there and not even know it.
I also remember waiting for a performance of one of their theatrical shows. A "maintenance guy" came out on the stage and really looked as if he was checking the lights, etc., for the show. But then he starts talking with some people up front in the stands, and eventually he's singing and dancing, and a few other "maintenance guys" wander in and join him, and boom! Without hardly realizing it, we were witnessing a planned pre-show performance to keep the crowd occupied. Again, I was just amazed. It felt like we were getting a special treat, when it was all creatively planned that way.
Lastly, (I can think of dozens of other examples) when we were at Disneyworld we spent a day at the "Blizzard Beach" Disney waterpark. How do you make a WATERPARK look and feel like a ski resort??? I have no idea how you would even want to attempt that, but Disney absolutely nailed it. It looks like a ski resort. The buildings look like they have snow on them, there are icicles on the roof edges, the big water slide looks like a ski jump, there are ski lifts to ride to the top, chateaus, icebergs in the water, etc. Absolutely blew my mind. And then there is "Typhoon Lagoon" (the other Disney waterpark) that somehow makes it look like it just got wrecked by a typhoon and yet it's still charming!
Seriously, their creative minds are through the roof. I am so impressed with Disney that I almost don't mind forking over the $150 that it costs to spend a day there! I'd like to see what they do to convey to every one of their thousands of employees that they have an integral part to play in creating the magic of Disney.
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