What I find most alarming about them using time and resources at D23 Expo to announce these meet n' greets is the pitifully low throughput numbers that these things inherently get.
You put a kid from Fullerton Junior College
(Go Hornets!) out there in a costume with a handler or two, and you form a little line, do 50 greets per hour and get maybe 150 people per hour through that process. Then you factor in that these lil' meet n' greets never run during all park operating hours, and you realize that it's only open 8 or 10 hours per day while the rest of the park offerings operate the full 16 hour day.
Meanwhile, the parks are full of actual rides that cycle through thousands and thousands of customers per hour. It's an inconvenient truth for some folks here, I'm sure, but these park meet n' greets have a
teeny, tiny impact on the actual park experience for most paying customers.
Assuming an average of 3 customers per meet n' greet, 50 greets per hour, 10 hours per day...
Disneyland USA, Park Open 8am to 12 Midnight
Mandalorian & Grogu Meet N' Greet = 150 customers per hour, 1,500 customers per day
Pirates of the Caribbean = 2,800 riders per hour, 44,800 riders per day
It's A Small World = 2,300 riders per hour, 36,800 riders per day
Big Thunder Mountain = 2,200 riders per hour, 35,200 riders per day
Haunted Mansion = 2,100 riders per hour, 33,600 riders per day
Indiana Jones Adventure = 1,900 riders per hour, 30,400 riders per day
Space Mountain = 1,800 riders per hour, 28,800 riders per day
Matterhorn Bobsleds = 1,400 riders per hour, 22,400 riders per day
Peter Pan's Flight = 700 riders per hour, 11,200 riders per day
Dumbo = 500 riders per hour, 8,000 riders per day
And yet, because they didn't want to admit they have other real projects in the works for Disneyland, they wasted a large amount of time at yesterday's Parks Panel talking about a couple of new meet n' greets? Meet n' greets that will actually entertain a
teeny, tiny portion of the daily customers?
I'm more embarrassed for them for wasting their time on this meet n' greet announcement than I am embarrassed for them for all wearing the same pair of dorky Dad Jeans on stage.