Fine Line on Wild Rides
Disney Balances Family Image With a Need for More Thrills; New Warnings for Parents
By MERISSA MARR and KIM-MAI CUTLER
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
July 1, 2005
Each day, thousands of visitors to Walt Disney Co.'s theme parks ride pulse-pounding attractions that propel them into space, plunge them multiple stories and send them racing along tracks at stomach-churning speeds.
For the most part, visitors ride without worrying much about the risks, especially when the attractions are backed by a trusted, family brand like Disney. But it takes just one headline-grabbing accident -- like the recent death of a four-year-old boy on the Mission: Space attraction at Disney's Epcot park in Orlando -- to raise questions about safety, regulation and whether Disney has pushed the envelope too far when it comes to thrills.
The Mission: Space incident illustrates a difficult dilemma for Disney: even though its rides are usually not as extreme as parks owned by Six Flags Inc. -- where some roller coasters top 450-foot heights and go from zero to 128 miles per hour in 3.5 seconds -- Disney's family-friendly reputation puts it under a harsher spotlight when things go wrong. "Disney is the happiest place on earth," says author David Koenig, who has written a number of books independently about the company. "Nobody can get hurt at Disneyland."
Indeed, many Disney theme-park customers still carry expectations of the world that Walt Disney first conceived for the original Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., in the 1950s. The late Mr. Disney sought to create rides the whole family could enjoy together. But under pressure from faster, bigger and scarier rides at other parks, Disney has introduced more intense attractions in recent years.
Disney insists it's not in the business of extreme rides and offers a balance of attractions that are more about telling stories than providing thrills. In an effort to reassure visitors, the company in recent years has launched an aggressive campaign to publicize its safety efforts for the first time. "Thrill rides are not what Disney is about," says Eric Jacobson, vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering's creative division, which masterminds Disney's theme park rides. "The ride is not the driver for the experience. It's just a device to help us tell a broader story."
Still, Disney's attractions have gotten a lot more daring than the days of Snow White's Adventures, the company's not-so-thrilling attempt at a darker attraction in the original Disneyland -- it was later renamed Snow White's Scary Adventures. As rival parks raced to outdo each other, Disney took its rides up a notch in the 1970s with attractions like the roller coasters Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It later followed with The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, in which an elevator free falls 13 stories; the Aerosmith Rock 'n' Roller Coaster which goes 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds; and Test Track in which cars take corners at 65 mph.
Grappling with stagnant attendance in the wake of Sept. 11, Walt Disney opened its most advanced ride in 2003 -- the $100 million Mission: Space. Based on NASA training techniques, the ride simulates a journey to Mars using centrifugal forces that spin passengers in much the same way as the "whirl and hurl" rides of more hardcore parks.
The ride was so realistic during its test phase that vomiting was common and Disney had to hose down the exit ramps, say people familiar with the situation. The ride registered eight complaints in a little over a year after making its debut -- more than any other ride in the park. Most of the reported incidents were from older visitors complaining of chest pain and nausea, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Florida's theme park regulator. As it often does with new rides, Disney tweaked Mission: Space before its launch so that it wasn't so harsh on riders, although the ride still makes some visitors ill and air-sickness bags are provided.
Disney says the gravitational force of Mission: Space is less than typical roller coasters. Passengers experience an estimated 2.3Gs -- equivalent to 2.3 times a passenger's body weight -- compared to estimates of more than 4Gs on roller coasters like Kingda Ka at the Six Flags Great Adventure park in Jackson, New Jersey. Kingda Ka, however, has been closed since June 8 following a malfunction during a test run and will reopen after a piece of the track is repaired, a spokeswoman says.
The difference with Mission: Space is that it is over a longer period. "I've never felt anything like Mission: Space's sustained Gs," theme park enthusiast and author Arthur Levine wrote in an online column that reviews rides.
Disney also uses effects, sound and in some cases smell to make its rides seem more intense. For instance, Disney's upcoming Expedition Everest "high speed train adventure" -- Disney speak for a roller coaster -- at Walt Disney World will include blasts of frigid air.
Like Disney's other more advanced rides, Mission: Space comes with a 44-inch height restriction and health warnings that caution visitors against taking the ride if they have conditions like high blood pressure, heart, back or neck problems or motion sickness. Disney sets a height rather than an age restriction to ensure young passengers can be properly restrained in the seat. It's also harder to monitor age, rather than height. But the death of Daudi Bamuwamye on Mission: Space has raised questions about whether there should be an age requirement.
The four-year-old, who died after passing out on the ride, met the height restriction, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. An autopsy found no trauma and further tests are being conducted to establish the cause of death, says Sheri Blanton, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office in Orlando.
Similarly, it's hard to monitor the health of a passenger and whether they are too frail to take a ride. And it's impossible to assess if a passenger has an unknown heart or brain problem. For instance, a four-year-old died after collapsing on Disney's "Body Wars" ride at Epcot in 1995; while an autopsy didn't provide conclusive evidence for the cause of death, the girl was later discovered to have had an undiagnosed heart problem.
Despite the warning signs, some visitors don't expect such intense rides from Disney. When it comes to young children in particular, parents need to "play an important role in the partnership to ensure safety," says Disney's Chief Safety Officer Greg Hale.
Mr. Hale was appointed in the wake of 9/11 as part of a new drive to make Disney's safety efforts more public. Using characters from "The Lion King," Disney launched a "Wild About Safety" campaign that included 10,000 new warning signs for its rides. and a list of 12 safety tips for visitors that include "don't pressure kids to take rides that may be too scary for them" and "don't take rides if you are not feeling well."
For the first time, it also publicized its safety standards, which include daily ride inspections. Disney says it spends years developing and testing its rides, and is quick to shut them down if there's a problem. For instance, after a 62-year-old woman fell sick on the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland this week, Disney closed the ride for a day.
The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions says the chance of a fatal injury on a fixed site amusement ride is 1 in 790 million. The chance of being injured seriously enough to require overnight hospitalization is 1 in 10 million, it says.
Still, some people argue that the theme parks industry needs more regulation. Since 1981, the government has not considered fixed site amusement rides consumer products and therefore are free of oversight by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. In public statements, Rep. Ed Markey, (D., Mass.) has said that means federal investigators can't inspect rides even after accidents like Daudi Bamuwamye's. Rep. Markey is lobbying for more federal oversight.
Last week, the California Supreme Court took a step toward toughening regulations by ruling that amusement park rides must abide by the same state safety standards for other modes of transport, such as buses and trains.
At the very least, theme parks should improve the way they report accidents, some executives say. "In general, people would welcome more accurate data, because the inaccuracy or the incompleteness doesn't give a true picture," says James Barber, a spokesman for the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials.
Write to Merissa Marr at merissa.marr@wsj.com
Disney Balances Family Image With a Need for More Thrills; New Warnings for Parents
By MERISSA MARR and KIM-MAI CUTLER
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
July 1, 2005
Each day, thousands of visitors to Walt Disney Co.'s theme parks ride pulse-pounding attractions that propel them into space, plunge them multiple stories and send them racing along tracks at stomach-churning speeds.
For the most part, visitors ride without worrying much about the risks, especially when the attractions are backed by a trusted, family brand like Disney. But it takes just one headline-grabbing accident -- like the recent death of a four-year-old boy on the Mission: Space attraction at Disney's Epcot park in Orlando -- to raise questions about safety, regulation and whether Disney has pushed the envelope too far when it comes to thrills.
The Mission: Space incident illustrates a difficult dilemma for Disney: even though its rides are usually not as extreme as parks owned by Six Flags Inc. -- where some roller coasters top 450-foot heights and go from zero to 128 miles per hour in 3.5 seconds -- Disney's family-friendly reputation puts it under a harsher spotlight when things go wrong. "Disney is the happiest place on earth," says author David Koenig, who has written a number of books independently about the company. "Nobody can get hurt at Disneyland."
Indeed, many Disney theme-park customers still carry expectations of the world that Walt Disney first conceived for the original Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., in the 1950s. The late Mr. Disney sought to create rides the whole family could enjoy together. But under pressure from faster, bigger and scarier rides at other parks, Disney has introduced more intense attractions in recent years.
Disney insists it's not in the business of extreme rides and offers a balance of attractions that are more about telling stories than providing thrills. In an effort to reassure visitors, the company in recent years has launched an aggressive campaign to publicize its safety efforts for the first time. "Thrill rides are not what Disney is about," says Eric Jacobson, vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering's creative division, which masterminds Disney's theme park rides. "The ride is not the driver for the experience. It's just a device to help us tell a broader story."
Still, Disney's attractions have gotten a lot more daring than the days of Snow White's Adventures, the company's not-so-thrilling attempt at a darker attraction in the original Disneyland -- it was later renamed Snow White's Scary Adventures. As rival parks raced to outdo each other, Disney took its rides up a notch in the 1970s with attractions like the roller coasters Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It later followed with The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, in which an elevator free falls 13 stories; the Aerosmith Rock 'n' Roller Coaster which goes 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds; and Test Track in which cars take corners at 65 mph.
Grappling with stagnant attendance in the wake of Sept. 11, Walt Disney opened its most advanced ride in 2003 -- the $100 million Mission: Space. Based on NASA training techniques, the ride simulates a journey to Mars using centrifugal forces that spin passengers in much the same way as the "whirl and hurl" rides of more hardcore parks.
The ride was so realistic during its test phase that vomiting was common and Disney had to hose down the exit ramps, say people familiar with the situation. The ride registered eight complaints in a little over a year after making its debut -- more than any other ride in the park. Most of the reported incidents were from older visitors complaining of chest pain and nausea, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Florida's theme park regulator. As it often does with new rides, Disney tweaked Mission: Space before its launch so that it wasn't so harsh on riders, although the ride still makes some visitors ill and air-sickness bags are provided.
Disney says the gravitational force of Mission: Space is less than typical roller coasters. Passengers experience an estimated 2.3Gs -- equivalent to 2.3 times a passenger's body weight -- compared to estimates of more than 4Gs on roller coasters like Kingda Ka at the Six Flags Great Adventure park in Jackson, New Jersey. Kingda Ka, however, has been closed since June 8 following a malfunction during a test run and will reopen after a piece of the track is repaired, a spokeswoman says.
The difference with Mission: Space is that it is over a longer period. "I've never felt anything like Mission: Space's sustained Gs," theme park enthusiast and author Arthur Levine wrote in an online column that reviews rides.
Disney also uses effects, sound and in some cases smell to make its rides seem more intense. For instance, Disney's upcoming Expedition Everest "high speed train adventure" -- Disney speak for a roller coaster -- at Walt Disney World will include blasts of frigid air.
Like Disney's other more advanced rides, Mission: Space comes with a 44-inch height restriction and health warnings that caution visitors against taking the ride if they have conditions like high blood pressure, heart, back or neck problems or motion sickness. Disney sets a height rather than an age restriction to ensure young passengers can be properly restrained in the seat. It's also harder to monitor age, rather than height. But the death of Daudi Bamuwamye on Mission: Space has raised questions about whether there should be an age requirement.
The four-year-old, who died after passing out on the ride, met the height restriction, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. An autopsy found no trauma and further tests are being conducted to establish the cause of death, says Sheri Blanton, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office in Orlando.
Similarly, it's hard to monitor the health of a passenger and whether they are too frail to take a ride. And it's impossible to assess if a passenger has an unknown heart or brain problem. For instance, a four-year-old died after collapsing on Disney's "Body Wars" ride at Epcot in 1995; while an autopsy didn't provide conclusive evidence for the cause of death, the girl was later discovered to have had an undiagnosed heart problem.
Despite the warning signs, some visitors don't expect such intense rides from Disney. When it comes to young children in particular, parents need to "play an important role in the partnership to ensure safety," says Disney's Chief Safety Officer Greg Hale.
Mr. Hale was appointed in the wake of 9/11 as part of a new drive to make Disney's safety efforts more public. Using characters from "The Lion King," Disney launched a "Wild About Safety" campaign that included 10,000 new warning signs for its rides. and a list of 12 safety tips for visitors that include "don't pressure kids to take rides that may be too scary for them" and "don't take rides if you are not feeling well."
For the first time, it also publicized its safety standards, which include daily ride inspections. Disney says it spends years developing and testing its rides, and is quick to shut them down if there's a problem. For instance, after a 62-year-old woman fell sick on the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland this week, Disney closed the ride for a day.
The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions says the chance of a fatal injury on a fixed site amusement ride is 1 in 790 million. The chance of being injured seriously enough to require overnight hospitalization is 1 in 10 million, it says.
Still, some people argue that the theme parks industry needs more regulation. Since 1981, the government has not considered fixed site amusement rides consumer products and therefore are free of oversight by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. In public statements, Rep. Ed Markey, (D., Mass.) has said that means federal investigators can't inspect rides even after accidents like Daudi Bamuwamye's. Rep. Markey is lobbying for more federal oversight.
Last week, the California Supreme Court took a step toward toughening regulations by ruling that amusement park rides must abide by the same state safety standards for other modes of transport, such as buses and trains.
At the very least, theme parks should improve the way they report accidents, some executives say. "In general, people would welcome more accurate data, because the inaccuracy or the incompleteness doesn't give a true picture," says James Barber, a spokesman for the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials.
Write to Merissa Marr at merissa.marr@wsj.com
