https://www.ocregister.com/2019/01/...tar-wars-galaxys-edge-and-its-massive-crowds/
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Disneyland vice president Kris Theiler and Disneyland art director Kim Irvine gave members of the media a tour of the small but important changes being made to the 64-year-old park that they hope will ease congestion in often-crowded areas of Main Street USA, Fantasyland and Adventureland.
The media tour took place early Tuesday morning, Jan. 22, before the park opened to the public for the day as forklifts rolled down Main Street USA, trucks pulled trailers filled with colorful plants and Disneyland’s gardening team updated flower beds for Valentine’s Day.
Project Stardust
Project Stardust — mash-up of Star Wars and Pixie Dust — takes a comprehensive park-wide look at operations, infrastructure and crowd management with an eye toward improving efficiency, traffic flow and access.
With little room to grow, the goal of Project Stardust is to repurpose and reallocate the precious and finite existing space within the boundaries of the park. Work began on the project two years ago with Disneyland crews focusing on expanding walkways, trimming planters, maximizing attraction queue capacities and corralling strollers throughout the park. The work will continue in earnest until Galaxy’s Edge opens in June.
Project Stardust is one of several ways Disneyland hopes to manage attendance and control crowds at the park, Theiler said. Disneyland recently increased prices on its tiered ticketing system in hopes of shifting visitations to off-peak periods. The park continues to make adjustments to the annual passholder blackout calendar with an eye toward managing crowds during the Star Wars crush this summer and beyond.
Rather than make sweeping changes with Project Stardust, Theiler decided to institute incremental improvements and assess their impact on influencing visitor behavior. The goal: Make any alteration to the park seem like a natural fit that has been in place since Disneyland’s opening day in 1955.
No detail was too small for scrutiny. Disneyland’s operations, facilities and maintenance teams have had long conversations about the appropriate angle for curb cuts on Main Street USA, Theiler said. Visitors entering Disneyland today will spot construction walls in front of City Hall where planter work is under way and the Emporium gift shop where curb work is being done.<<
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A decorative scrim added in early February will wrap the scaffolding on the front of the castle in an early concept illustration of the castle by Disney artist Herb Ryman. The scaffolding on the back of the castle will be covered with an image of Prince Phillip battling the Maleficent dragon amid thorns and flames. The massive Maleficent illustration will be based on an animation still from the original “Sleeping Beauty” film, said Irvine, the art director for Walt Disney Imagineering’s Disneyland office.
Thanks to a few forced perspective tweaks, the 70-foot-tall Sleeping Beauty Castle will appear even taller once work is complete. To facilitate the visual illusion, the castle has always had larger stones near the bottom and smaller stones near the top. When the castle rehab is finished, the paint will be darker on the bottom and gradually lighter on the top, enhancing the forced perspective effect.<<
>>To help reduce crowding, the Dole Whip stand in front of the Enchanted Tiki Room will be closed on busy days, with fans of the popular treat directed to the new stand in Tropical Hideaway.<<
More at the link, and don't forget, the Southern California News Group has multiple newspapers, so you can always check another paper if you have reached your limit at one of them.
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Disneyland vice president Kris Theiler and Disneyland art director Kim Irvine gave members of the media a tour of the small but important changes being made to the 64-year-old park that they hope will ease congestion in often-crowded areas of Main Street USA, Fantasyland and Adventureland.
The media tour took place early Tuesday morning, Jan. 22, before the park opened to the public for the day as forklifts rolled down Main Street USA, trucks pulled trailers filled with colorful plants and Disneyland’s gardening team updated flower beds for Valentine’s Day.
Project Stardust
Project Stardust — mash-up of Star Wars and Pixie Dust — takes a comprehensive park-wide look at operations, infrastructure and crowd management with an eye toward improving efficiency, traffic flow and access.
With little room to grow, the goal of Project Stardust is to repurpose and reallocate the precious and finite existing space within the boundaries of the park. Work began on the project two years ago with Disneyland crews focusing on expanding walkways, trimming planters, maximizing attraction queue capacities and corralling strollers throughout the park. The work will continue in earnest until Galaxy’s Edge opens in June.
Project Stardust is one of several ways Disneyland hopes to manage attendance and control crowds at the park, Theiler said. Disneyland recently increased prices on its tiered ticketing system in hopes of shifting visitations to off-peak periods. The park continues to make adjustments to the annual passholder blackout calendar with an eye toward managing crowds during the Star Wars crush this summer and beyond.
Rather than make sweeping changes with Project Stardust, Theiler decided to institute incremental improvements and assess their impact on influencing visitor behavior. The goal: Make any alteration to the park seem like a natural fit that has been in place since Disneyland’s opening day in 1955.
No detail was too small for scrutiny. Disneyland’s operations, facilities and maintenance teams have had long conversations about the appropriate angle for curb cuts on Main Street USA, Theiler said. Visitors entering Disneyland today will spot construction walls in front of City Hall where planter work is under way and the Emporium gift shop where curb work is being done.<<
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A decorative scrim added in early February will wrap the scaffolding on the front of the castle in an early concept illustration of the castle by Disney artist Herb Ryman. The scaffolding on the back of the castle will be covered with an image of Prince Phillip battling the Maleficent dragon amid thorns and flames. The massive Maleficent illustration will be based on an animation still from the original “Sleeping Beauty” film, said Irvine, the art director for Walt Disney Imagineering’s Disneyland office.
Thanks to a few forced perspective tweaks, the 70-foot-tall Sleeping Beauty Castle will appear even taller once work is complete. To facilitate the visual illusion, the castle has always had larger stones near the bottom and smaller stones near the top. When the castle rehab is finished, the paint will be darker on the bottom and gradually lighter on the top, enhancing the forced perspective effect.<<
>>To help reduce crowding, the Dole Whip stand in front of the Enchanted Tiki Room will be closed on busy days, with fans of the popular treat directed to the new stand in Tropical Hideaway.<<
More at the link, and don't forget, the Southern California News Group has multiple newspapers, so you can always check another paper if you have reached your limit at one of them.
