Which Skills Should Disney Mimic From Its Competitors?
Everyone running a business always has room to improve.
I don’t care whether you’re running a business out of your garage or you’re Tim Cook. You can do some things better.
While Disney’s market share dominance suggests it’s only competing with itself in the theme park industry, it’s still not perfect.
Today, I’ve taken a look at some other popular theme park businesses and identified some ways Disney could get better.
Which skills should Disney mimic from its competitors? There are a few.
The Classics — Knoebels
Over the past 30 years, Walt Disney World loyalists have taken it on the chin several times.
We’ve lost classic attractions like The Great Movie Ride, Maelstrom, and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, all in the name of progress.
Park officials are constantly searching for new ways to siphon traffic off the streets, and they’d prefer to do so cheaply.
The three rides I mentioned were easily affordable in the 1950s, 1970s, and 1980s. They’d be peanuts today.
Disney should consider some sort of Classics area wherein it bunches several proven, high throughput rides together.
Nostalgia is way in right now, and Knoebels has proven the validity of the core concept.
When you visit Knoebels, you’re exploring a kind of theme park museum that’s also an open, fully functional tourist destination.
Knoebels has restored countless classic rides and then sold tourists on the idea of reliving their youth.
The retro vibe attracts new fans as well, just as many kids today are obsessed with 20th century video games.
Disney has an opportunity to satisfy many of the people currently angry with it, as most vocal critics skew older.
Those same people couldn’t resist a trip down memory lane.
Speed – Cedar Point
I’m picking a terrible time to make this argument as Cedar Point’s newest ride, Top Thrill 2, has experienced some unpleasantness.
Still, the self-professed roller coaster capital of the world isn’t making that claim randomly.
You’ll find 18 roller coasters among the 68 attractions at the Ohio amusement park.
For the longest time, Disney ceded the roller coaster wars to other parks.
A few years ago, Disney stepped up its game by announcing some new offerings.
We’ve gotten Tron Lightcycle / Run and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind since then, and both are impeccable.
Still, Disney doesn’t seem to love roller coasters as much as its competitors.
Perhaps the family-friendly nature of the park makes a plethora of roller coasters a bad idea.
Also, I shouldn’t gloss over the fact that Magic Kingdom alone offers several good ones that cross multiple generations of design.
We also have the training wheels roller coaster, The Barnstormer, here for children who want to play.
Still, Walt Disney World theme parks cover thousands of acres of land.
Cedar Point has somehow squeezed 18 coasters into 364 acres. It makes Disney seem like it’s not trying hard enough.
Then again, Top Thrill Dragster closed because it wasn’t safe, and now Top Thrill 2 already needs more work.
Maybe Disney believes that dark rides and other forms of attractions are inherently safer as well as more cost economical?
As a thrill ride lover, I’d like to see more of them at Disney World, but there may be a justifiable explanation on this particular topic.
Spirit – Dollywood
If I left my house right now, I’d be at Dollywood in less than an hour, longer if I stop at the world’s largest Buc-ees that just opened there.
The point is that I’m emotionally connected to Dollywood for multiple reasons.
My oldest brother got married there, and I went to college with people whose tuition was paid for by Dolly Parton.
Each year, I discuss the Golden Ticket Awards, a theme park industry version of the Academy Awards, which Disney rarely wins.
The explanation here isn’t a slight against Disney. There’s a voting system that punishes the industry’s biggest business.
Dollywood works the opposite way. As the underdog everyone adores, it tends to overachieve.
In fact, Dollywood is the reigning winner in the category of Best Amusement Park.
What this little park does especially well is appearing homey. You’ll recognize that when you track Disney influencers.
Dollywood sometimes reaches out to established Disney park fans and invites them to East Tennessee.
Inevitably, influencers like Super Enthused fall in love with the place due to its vibe and genteel brand of southern hospitality.
Since Bob Chapek took over, critics have assailed Disney for its feeling a bit more corporate.
Even with Bob Iger back and beloved Josh D’Amaro running the parks, that belief lingers in some quarters.
Disney would do well to return to its roots a bit by adding park experiences that provide more spirit.
A nice start would be bringing back the Citizens of Hollywood, which is supposedly going to happen in 2024.
In my opinion, Disney should provide kitschy, distracting fun at every turn.
Urgency – Universal Studios
Theme park design is a double-edged sword. Often, when you go faster, you make mistakes.
I can use a recent example to underscore this point, as Cedar Fair rushed to replace Top Thrill Dragster with Top Thrill 2.
The new ride was open roughly two weeks before it had to close.
A manufacturing defect on the ride carts requires immediate correction.
Universal Studios is susceptible to this mistake as well. Some of its attractions over the past decade weren’t up to snuff.
I’m looking at you, Fast & Furious: Supercharged and Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Still, Universal Studios has mastered a skill that Disney currently lacks.
Universal can turn around an attraction or even an entire themed land in a short period of time.
Next month, DreamWorks Land will open in the space previously held by KidZone as recently as January 2023.
The closest thing we’ve seen from Disney was the redesign of Mickey’s Toontown at Disneyland.
Overall, when Disney announces a project, fans merely accept that it’ll take a while.
Disney has chosen a meticulous path with theme park construction, and the results speak for themselves.
Sometimes, fans cannot help but feel envy about Universal Studios building entire theme parks so quickly.
Disney needed more time from the announcement of Pandora – The World of Avatar to its conclusion than Universal will take for Epic Universe!
A bit of urgency wouldn’t hurt anybody, Disney!
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