In 1977 when Space Mountain opened, the line went through Tomorrowland and up (down?) Main St., then curved backstage around the old BofA, now Disneyana, for quite a ways. It caught me very off guard to see the guests as I was walking from the lockers to head onstage. One of those things that your mind won't register because it's just wrong.
I tend to think the opposite. There's more criticism and negativity than ever and it's amplified by social media
It’s both. There’s more criticism because the experience of visiting the parks has gotten worse, there’s less originality and less value for the dollar than in years past. But at the same time, there are still plenty of customers showing up based on the legacy of decades of good will, value and creativity from the past, unaware of how drastically many things have changed. And there’s still enough good show to elevate the product slightly above most of the competition, especially for those who did not experience how great the Disney parks used to be in past decades. Personally, I prefer Universal Orlando at this point.
Didn't know that this is when they opened up the backstage area, and didnt realize a road links storybook land to big thunder trail.
That’s so neat, I didn’t know about this tunnel/path, but not good show at all on Disney’s part. Seems like bad ops planning.
This is such bad show, I can’t believe it. And did it really help that much with crowds to justify all the hassle? You are so right about them being creepy looking, and why so slow?
After a few weeks of that, they got the Voice of Disneyland to boom out on repeat as the four stages rolled by... "The large rolling stages you see passing by will be used in tonight's performance of Light Magic! Please check with a Disneyland Cast Member for showtimes and viewing areas! The large rolling stages you see passing by will be used in tonight's performance...."
It was a Chef's Kiss perfection for artistic and operational failure!
That’s so funny people were talking about it even back then. I remember Jim Hill’s article saying it was the first time the internet had an effect on Disney as people started reporting on the fake AP Premiere Event (where Paul Pressler came out and told the paying crowd they were going to see a technical rehearsal and to expect glitches).I wasn't there to see that, but remember hearing all about it on the Usenet forums. Seeing as how we didn't know what a drone was back then, it was described as just a remote controlled toy helicopter type thing dressed up with a Tinkerbell overlay. Like almost everything attached to Light Magic, it was an artistic and operational failure.
There is a path behind main street and it is themed. Don't they use it anymore? It's only used during parades or fireworks as an exit on packed days.
I wouldn't really call it themed. The east side bypass is the better of the two but still very bare bones and then the west side bypass is just an embarrassment. They need to do something like Disneyland Paris in the long run
Does it look like the back of a industrial building? No. It is lightly themed no matter how bare bones. It is designed for the cattle to leave during emergencies or when Main Street is packed during fireworks or parades.
You call that theming?
As the very wise @Parteecia mentioned, they'd done it before to hold queue in '77 for Space Mountain.
But for Light Magic, after the first two weeks or so of utter disaster, they started opening up multiple backstage walking routes nightly and for hours at a time in multiple locations. To alleviate the disaster in the Small World Mall, they opened the gates next to the old Kodak kiosk in Fantasyland and sent everyone down the alley and through a tunnel that dumped us out on the Big Thunder Trail. And they also opened up the (rather smelly) alley from Coke Corner to the Emporium for hours every evening to help Main Street. It was utter chaos and very messy, but it at least prevented panic from breaking out in gridlocked crowds.
I think my favorite part of that summer was around late June, when they were getting desperate. To try and help with crowd flow, they decied to reverse the direction and order in which the show was designed to start; from Small World being the first show around 8:45 to Main Street being that first show and going in reverse. Then the stages rolled north to Small World for their second show, then back again to Main Street for the last two shows. Sometime after park closing, the stages were rolled home to the parade warehouse.
The problem is that the rolling stages were battery powered and using 1990's technology, so they had to charge up overnight and all day back in the parade warehouse behind Toontown. So to get them down behind Main Street to start the show, in early evening around 6:00 they'd roll all four massive stages silently down through the middle of the park and park them for preparations behind Main Street. They weren't designed to be seen in the daylight, much less without all the lights on and characters and pixies dancing on them, so you had these giant, hulking, creepy looking haunted forest stages rolling silently down the parade route in broad daylight.
After a few weeks of that, they got the Voice of Disneyland to boom out on repeat as the four stages rolled by... "The large rolling stages you see passing by will be used in tonight's performance of Light Magic! Please check with a Disneyland Cast Member for showtimes and viewing areas! The large rolling stages you see passing by will be used in tonight's performance...."
It was a Chef's Kiss perfection for artistic and operational failure!
I wasn't there to see that, but remember hearing all about it on the Usenet forums. Seeing as how we didn't know what a drone was back then, it was described as just a remote controlled toy helicopter type thing dressed up with a Tinkerbell overlay. Like almost everything attached to Light Magic, it was an artistic and operational failure.
