(no subject)

In the past year or so leading up to my move to Orlando I had several people ask me why we didn't move to California instead. My general response was that DL and Walt Disney World are not the same. A little over ten years ago a man named Paul Pressler took over the operations at DL and began a series of short-cutting and cost-cutting measures that have left the park a disgrace. He left a few years ago and passed on command to Cynthia Harris, who has continued in the same vein. Paint is peeling all over the park. Tomorrowland is a ghost town. It has been more than ten years since a major new attraction has opened in DL. And worst of all, there have been serious cutbacks in maintenance.

Which leads us to today's tragedy. Prior to 1998 the only guests who had died on Disneyland attractions (a total of six) were directly responsible for their own injuries because they ignored or subverted safety systems. That changed in 1998 when a guest was killed entirely due to poor training and negligence on the part of a DL cast member. Now today another guest has died from apparent catastrophic track failure on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Here is a report and commentary from themeparkinsider.com:


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One man was killed and at least 10 others injured after an accident at Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Authorities set up a triage area near the ride, located in the Frontierland section of the park. One person was moderately injured with facial lacerations. Other injuries appear to be minor.

This is the third catastrophic mechanical failure causing injury on a roller coaster at Disneyland in a little over three years. The two previous incidents happened on Disneyland's now-shuttered Space Mountain coaster.

Such failures are extremely rare in the theme park industry. Almost always, injury accidents are the result of human error -- most commonly the fault of the rider but occasionally the fault of a ride operator.

This level of mechanical failure on roller coasters at a single major theme park is unprecedented, to my memory. And these are not the only recent major accidents at the Disneyland Resort. California Adventure's Mulholland Madness coaster injured multiple riders after its opening, before CalOSHA forced Disney to shut down the ride and make repairs. And in two other highly publicized incidents, a child was permanently disabled on Disneyland's Roger Rabbit ride (an incident CalOSHA attributed to ride design flaws) and a man was killed on the Sailing Ship Columbia dock after an untrained supervisor moored the ship, ripping a cleat from its deck which then flew into the waiting crowd.

Clearly, a dangerous pattern has been established at Disneyland. Since former Disneyland President Paul Pressler assumed control of the resort and began cutting costs, fans have complained about poor maintenance at the park, citing peeling and faded paint, burnt light bulbs and other superficial flaws. This most recent accident, coupled with the incidents at Space Mountain, will surely raise additional, far more serious questions, about Disneyland's attention to mechanical maintenance over the past several years.
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The pattern of poor maintenance and poor training at DL in recent years is quite clear. One only hopes today's tragedy will finally be the catalyst for change. I sincerely hope so. My heart goes out to the families of those involved in the derailment. It is a sad, sad day.

Michael Eisner Lies

If you happened to see the press conference yesterday with Michael Eisner, you may have heard him say:

"I came down to Disneyland specifically to lend my support to our cast, to express condolences to those people that are injured, to the family of the deceased, and commit that this company will continue on its mission of guest safety and guest satisfaction."

That is an absolute lie. Mr. Eisner was at Disneyland as part of a long-planned ABC Prime-Time Weekend promotion. He had already been checked into the Grand Floridian Hotel well before the incident happened. He has taken the death of a park guest and turned it into a self-promotional opportunity. Whatever dwindling respect I had for him is now completely gone.

Regarding maintenance, here is a quote from miceage.com:

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It was discussed that a crew of six machinists properly supported, could keep Big Thunder running in a safe condition, as it was run since it was built. It was suggested that the recent changes are forcing a lack of attention to detail on repairs. As reports must be completed before the ride can be released to the operators, they become the priority. Doing actual repairs is secondary to finishing the paperwork, although that is also to be fully completed. It was felt that this was not possible, especially on a third shift schedule, for staff to remain sharp enough mentally to do an adequate job on all these tasks. It was also felt that now that inspectors are involved, awaiting their arrival to check and sign off their work also slows things down, forcing a rush to complete that work. As it continues this way, it becomes more and more likely that something could be overlooked.

Many also felt that the management teams responsible for upkeep are also now reactive and not proactive when it comes to ride upkeep. They cite the recent emergency closure of Space Mountain as an example of something that was allowed to break down before it was shuttered, as opposed to taking action before something serious could have happened.

The people I spoke with hope parks head Jay Rasulo finds it necessary to change how things are currently run and replace the current Team Disney Anaheim staff with people who understand just how to manage a theme park maintenance division. These same sources point to the record the park had before these changes took place and suggest the blame for these recent injuries and deaths should be placed squarely on the current resort leadership's shoulders. They strongly suggest that past policies of ride operation, upkeep and maintenance be returned to, and that the budgetary process which has prompted changes for the worse be reconsidered to make ride safety the primary consideration yet again.

It could well be that due to the specific nature of this accident, that the proper focus is finally placed on management in charge and the current changes in polices, and that blame will not be shuffled off to cast members who were operating the attraction. In the past it has been noted that the company seems to try and place blame on staffing itself as opposed to the policies it puts in place. It was also noted by a few of the sources that since the 1998 Columbia death good changes have been made by the authorities, and the park is now more open about what had happened in these kinds of events. Accidents can be investigated as they should be.

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The article also notes that the changes in maintenance procedures and operations in the past ten years are unique to Disneyland and have not been implemented at Walt Disney World.

Heads are gonna roll here, folks.

A Ben Update

Enough about bad stuff -- here's the latest scoop on what has been happening with Ben this last week.

Since last Monday was a holiday, I asked Sara if she wanted to take advantage of my day off from work and take Ben to Seaworld. She thought it was a marvelous idea, and she was particularly looking forward to seeing how it had changed. The last time she went there was as a teenager, and the park has roughly doulbed in size since then.

We arrived at the park and Ben seemed very happy to be there as we walked in from the parking lot and then bought our season passes. Once we got isside the park gates, however, he became increasingly agitated and just did not want to be there. He didn't care about the dolpin tanks or the manta rays that you can reach in and touch. He wasn't interested in any of the other exhibits we walked by, he just plain started to melt down. We found a quiet corner and got him some french fries, and he gradually calmed down. We decided to take him to the Shamu killer whale show, and that turned out to be the golden ticket. Sitting up near the back row, he watched with fascination as the whales and their trainers performed jumps and dives. I'm talkin' *big* smiles, as he took it all in. You can look at the pictures here. After that we went to another show, this one featuring seals, an otter, and a sea lion. Again he was fascinated by the whole thing. By then it was starting to get late, especially being a school night, so we left on an up note and called the day a success.

The next morning I took Ben into school, and then went inside to talk to the principal about the bus situation. He saw me right away, and once I introduced myself he knew exaxtly what the situation was. When I filled him in on all of the details and what exactly our frustrations were, he was sincerely apalled by the entire situation. He brought in the woman responsible on the school's end of things, who was also very frustrated. It all comes down to the indifferent beurocracy of the Transportation department. The principal got on the phone with transportation and made his displeasure known, and definitely moved things along.

The upshot is that as of Friday morning Ben started riding the bus again. He is on a different route and is picked up much earlier than he used to be, but that's ok. He enjoys the bus ride and it provides a good transition time for him.

In other news:

This next week I am attending a five day Visual Studion conference here in Orlando. I am really looking forward to it, it's been over three years since I got to go to one of these. Lots of good information, tons of free stuff... it should be a good time.

Also, there has been a bit of a re-organization at work. As of yesterday I am now the lead developer on the maintenance team. That encompasses both bug fixes and feature requests. It makes good sense to me, given that that kind of work requires less one-on-one interaction with stakeholders. Most of the the existing dev team will then be freed up to focus entirely on new functionality in the site. As part of the change I now have a different direct supervisor, although I have known him for years now and like him quite a bit. He wants me to come up to the Seattle office for a couple of days to help get the team established, so It looks like I may be coming up to Seattle in the near future. I'll know more early this week, but the most likely scenario is for me to fly up a week from tomorrow in the evening and then work out of the Seattle office on that Monday and Tuesday, flying back home on Wednesday. I know there might be one or two people who will want to see me while I am in town, so the best I can say is tenatively keep your schedules clear on the 15th and 16th in the evening. I'll let you know when I know more.