There’s also a huge business difference, banning plastic straws is an easy environmental choice because they don’t generate revenue, banning plastic balloons that make $20 per balloon… not gonna happen.
I think it’s a combination of both, when I wanted to reduce my water usage at home (for drought and financial reasons) I tore out all the grass in the front yard and replaced it with desert landscaping, I replaced a lot of my backyard grass with desert landscaping also but kept a 10x15 foot section of grass for my dog, and because it looks nice.
If it was just about money, they'd be doing this everywhere, not just the place with water constraints.
They are not mutually exclusive. One can make changes for environmental reasons that also has a cost savings benefit, in business we call this a win-win.
There’s also a reason artificial turf has not been widely adopted, the cost savings are over time and not up front. When you already have a full landscape maintenance crew that will still have to do some maintenance work, the cost savings aren’t that big.
They've done it all over the Park 2 years ago, including your beloved Storybook Land, don't you remember the long conversations we had about this -
Disneyland rolls out the green carpet with more artificial turf around the park
New artificial turf around the Mickey floral planter at the Disneyland entrance and the Haunted Mansion front lawn will be unveiled on Friday, Sept. 2 when Halloween Time kicks off at the Anaheim t…www.ocregister.com
Also unless you missed what is being said, no one is claiming it wasn't done for economical reasons too. Just that the primary driver behind it was for environmental reasons. That is why I'm saying its not mutually exclusive, it can be for both environmental and economical reasons.
I honestly think its being over-exaggerated how much of an impact this has on guests. Yes its going to be impactful to someone such as yourself who is super critical of this stuff. But to regular lay guests that don't have a critical eye, as I said before I'm fairly sure that most don't notice it, or at the very least ignore it as they are immersed in the overall environment of the queue.
I wouldn't call this catering to the lowest common denominator. If HM is 10/10, and this downgrades its slightly then its still a 9.9/10. However I still personally don't consider this a downgrade, but maybe just like others I'm used to seeing turf since its pretty much used in a lot of California. So yeah I don't see it as an impact at all to guests.
New queue is still being built, walls that form the new queue appear to be mostly finished, they are now adding the theming.Sooooo …. How about that HM queue project? Or is this now HGTV?
Sooooo …. How about that HM queue project? Or is this now HGTV?
It’s a massive expense up front also, the last time I replaced my dying grass I priced out replacing it with fake grass and it was going to be nearly $1000, and that was just for materials with me doing the manual labor myself, that compared to about $100 to resod it.
Disney has the option to use native grass sod. Much better than using fake turf.
It's also about the PR and matching industry best practices as they progress. Disney has been actively promoting conservation efforts for over 20 years. They have been replacing landscaping with native, drought-tolerant plants all around the resort, wherever theming will allow. There are a host of efforts underway for both guests and backstage. I can be as cynical as anyone about Di$ney's motivations. But they do look at larger trends, as well.
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