I made an interesting observation while we were there: Disneyland is set up to keep you moving and not to loiter. Also, we were in line for Space Mountain and I observed that working there is like working on an "assembly line of happiness."
You will not find many benches or sitting areas at Disneyland but what is necessary at dinning locations. Even out side of the women's rest room, which is where all the men wait forever, has no sitting. Once off a ride, you are put into a gift shop or walk way, no sitting. To get from one end of the park to another you rarely can one travel in a straight line. All this is set up to keep you moving and exploring new things, making it difficult to sit around.
The parks have employees in every crevasse. A single rid will have a dozen or more, each at their assigned station performing their task. They pass visitors along, in parking lots, in lines, on roller coasters, on boats, and on the sidewalk before, after and during parade time. They do a great job of moving everyone along, and boy oh boy do they do a great job of making us happy. Truly I have never witnessed a more efficient assembly line of joy and happiness!
This also got me thinking. What if you could get into Disneyland for free and just payed for the rides? You know, like the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Remember the lack of benches? These theme parks are crowded enough, they have to work hard enough to keep it running smoothly and keep people moving. If it too was admission free the park would be over run with free loaders, people in just to have a good time. There is plenty you could do to have a good time in Disneyland that would not require you to pay for rides. You could have a very enjoyable afternoon, or even day in either park with no cost, or perhaps just the cost of a churro or cotton candy.
So instead everyone pays admission and all can enjoy every aspect of the park with out the hassle of buying tickets or bumping into people at every turn. This is a much better system. Disney sure does know what they are doing. And, I am sure they have studied and concluded that this is more profitable for them. This gives them sufficient to run the park smoothly and effectively for everyone to have a much more enjoyable experience.
This lead me to think of other applications of these principles. In our society we have to pay for services and entertainment. Imagine if people just come in for free and sit around? What if we don't keep moving and enjoying what is around us? What if we just sit still and do not act? How would our society be if we only payed for what we are using at that time? We would pay for a replacement for our tire when it goes flat but we wouldn't pay taxes to maintain the roads. We would pay for food to feed our family, but we would not pay for the service that picks up our garbage.
I am sure there are much more applications of this. I have many more ideas myself. I am also rather curious if 1) anyone but Toni actually reads this and 2) if there are, what is it that you all think about this idea? let me know via comment to this post, email or facebook message. Thank you for your time and thoughts.
