www.themeparkinsider.com: I evacuated a lot of guests from Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Pirates of the Caribbean over the years that I worked at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Those "in-show exits" actually inspired me to create Theme Park Insider — after I saw how happy some guests were to get an "insider's" backstage tour of the attractions as I led them out to the exit.
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This article summed up a lot of what we have been feeling and talked about the past few months, I feel. These problems have existed since the systems have been in place. It is only now that people are out of work, that there is no aid in sight, that people have time to reflect, are we finally lifting the veil on what is wrong with our community and society. I especially found the quote about how “When a loss of income threatens a company's bottom line, all that talk about being the "heart of the magic" goes away.” This hit hard. So often, the workers are touted as the most important. And yet they are paid garbage and are always the first to be let go when things are bad. I sincerely hope that as we continue to navigate this exposed world we live in now, we continue to push for radical change in how things are operated. As stated in the article, we can either ignore it and hope to go back to ‘normal’ or we can look at what ism and try and fix it.
I really loved this article. I think the pandemic has exposed a lot of our country's issues, beyond theme parks. As this article puts it, "The work lights are on right now, not just for the theme park industry, but for our entire society". It's exposed the failings of capitalism, systemic racism, and our healthcare system, but still people are too blind to notice the majority of us that are hurting. Those are the people that do not want the backstage look at the ride we're all on. They like to pretend that America is perfect, simply because they refuse to see anything else. They refuse to acknowledge their privilege. Disney is one of the most powerful corporations in the world. And yet, in its continued has opened theme parks earlier and put people in danger in hopes that they could make more money, but they ended up laying off hundreds of thousands of people instead. People who are not wearing masks at this time are also greedy, they are equally as ignorant to the harm they are causing.
My little arm-chair Socialist heart loved this article. The breakdown of every part of the industry and how it relates to society at large was great! No one ever thinks of the ability of the entertainment industry to affect political change unless it's something big that makes the news (such as movie companies pulling out of Georgia over the bathroom laws). The inclusion that our society under-pays and devalues it's workers increases the likelihood of bubble and bust economies is so true. And I have ALWAYS hated that health insurance has been tied to your employment (anything to keep the wages of the employees down while the higher ups can make more money, amiright?).
I am so looking forward to the time when we can see all the issues in this article as a thing of the past. There is no need to treat humans as machine parts that can be replaced once they are no longer useful. We can all SEE the problems, we just need people to step up and find solutions to them!
I found this to be an exceptionally well written article- the comparison of the inner working of a theme park to our general society was a really interesting one. I think this speaks to how every aspect of our lives, and especially the entertainment industry, is not exempt from the ongoing issues we have (which, for the record, are not being “discovered”, it's just that the more privileged are finally becoming more aware of them or at least starting to acknowledge the existence of systemic racism, sexism, xenophobia, healthcare problems, the list goes on). The whole idea that healthcare is tied to your employment status makes no sense; as the author says, how can that possibly seem logical with huge numbers of people being laid off during a pandemic (a HEALTH crisis if that wasn’t clear). The past 7 months have turned the work lights on- it is more impossible than ever to ignore the problems we have. The question is how will we move into the future, and work to better our society?
I have to admit that I don’t think about theme parks very much. I used to love going as a child, but not so much as an adult. Some of those rides make me feel my age in more than just my mind. This is a really good article and the title mislead me at first as did reading the first part about guests wanting (or not) the backstage tour, which I must admit that I would be so willing to do. I’ve always loved seeing how things work behind the scenes to make the magic happen. The further I read into the article, “turning the lights on” became clear and this author hits the nail on the head. There is so much wrong in the entertainment industry. Employees are cast aside while CEO’s and high level execs still get paid. It reminds me of school budget fights. When a district needs to cut spending, its the Arts and afterschool programs and teachers that get cut first, never the administration, which in many cases are the bulk of the bloated expenses. So when we are fighting for acceptance of BIPOC artists and technicians and fighting for equality and equity, we need to lend our voices to those in the theme parks. We should all be demanding the backstage tour.
I think it's safe to say that a lot was exposed, and is still being exposed, in 2020 due to the pandemic. I remember very early on when I first read about Cirque shutting down and the way they went about telling their staff members that they were no longer staff, I was truly shocked. That's a company that I have always admired, but...woah, that was a lot to take it. It has been quite the ride seeing who is seen as valuable in society. Not just in relation to the pandemic but also with the light being shed on racism. Which...I was never unaware of the racism. There have just been some much deeper things under the umbrella of racism that has surfaced. With that being said, this "exposure" isn't only related to things going on in the bigger world either. On a personal level, things about myself were exposed to me. Whether that may be things that I was aware of and decided to sweep under the rug, subconsciously, or things that I really hadn't realized before. Aside from exposure, we've all had lots of time to think, read, articulate and examine. To a certain extent this is bad but to a certain extent, this is good. I'm interested in seeing how things will play out once things get back to normal and to see if any changes will occur or if people will "forget about it."
This article takes a dive pretty quickly. Starting happily, it aims to make you feel how this writer feels. Theme parks are an interesting choice of specific sect of entertainment and while many people go to these and many people enjoy these places, it comes down to the fact that it’s a dead business already. They are just marketing lands, and while I do enjoy the rides as I would enjoy going to theme parks from time to time, I do not really need it in my life. Disney released a documentary not that long ago about how Disney became Disney, essentially. In the first part of the first episode they straight up tell you that theme parks were dying out when Disney decided to enter the business. It went horribly through the whole process essentially. Money was an issue, land was an issue, opening day and ride were issues. It has been a mess since the beginning. So, I am not surprised about where this article goes. The article hits on very important point and they are worth remembering, but it is only one perspective and a story, as we all know requires much more. This article is the beginning of a story, but it is not the whole story.
I found it interesting how this article addressed the tie between the theme park corporations and politics. It is definitely true, but I do not know if I have ever seen it outwardly stated. The point I also considered was the one about how theme park designers may be lost to other industries for a generation, leaving an empty space behind them. I wonder how it would be filled. By young people entering the profession? By taking designers back from other industries and bringing them over to theme parks? It is such a niche career that the pandemic definitely concerns me for this specific vein of jobs. My only criticism of this article is that I do not really understand the connection between the anecdote at the beginning and then jumping into the list of flaws with the industry? The initial paragraphs make it seem like the article will focus on audiences, when it does the exact opposite of that to bring awareness to the inner workings of the industry.
I thought the ‘backstage at a theme park’ metaphor running through this article was really interesting and a pretty effective way to talk about how the entertainment industry is doing right now. I definitely get the two types of people he talks about, those who want to see backstage and those who want to preserve the magic, and I think the ‘audiences’ still trying to ‘keep the magic going’ are frustrating to deal with right now simply because there are real issues here that people are now willfully ignoring. I think the points the author made at the end of the article were definitely important and something that we need to either accept or change, as well as bring to the attention of non-industry people who may not even know that the problems exist. A lot of the issues right now come back to the fact that many theaters, music venues, theme parks, and other parts of the entertainment industry are run for the purposes of profit, and that capitalism encourages the viewpoint that workers are cogs in the machine rather than people. Even nonprofits and venues that care about the people they employ still need to make enough money to remain open, and in our current situation that’s hard if not impossible to reconcile.
While I do love the magic that comes with theme parks, I think it was necessary for the audience to see the problems in order to demand change. As a guest, the companies make you forget that the workers there are actual people who get paid and can get fired. You never stop and think about how big of a pay gap they must have compared to the top executives. It makes sense that you don’t want to think about that after buying a $200 ticket to go. Now, when the parks are shut down and thousands of employees are being laid off we can see how their employers treat them. I never even thought about how many people's jobs and healthcare were tied together. Many people are scrambling right now because of that. Unfortunately, there are so many industries, including the theme park industry, that share these issues.
I really enjoyed this article. I thought it really summed up how I feel about the whole Covid-19 situation not just about the theme park industry and other themed entertainment ventures. The most interesting part to me is when relating it to the perception of the theme park industry. Recently I watched a Disney original documentary on the creation of the parks and it’s interesting to draw the similarities between now and then. When Walt originally tried to start Disney land everyone thought that it would fail. There were money issues and personal problems and ultimately people around Disney declared that no one would want to come to the park. There was no reason for it and it wasn’t worth it to people. Now days you are hearing a similar conversation just for different reasons and n a different context to when the parks first started. I just wonder what it’s gonna take and how much theme parks will change to meet the new world.
I think this article is an important one to discuss because I have heard very little about how tourism actually affects communities, whenever the topic is raised that it is problematic, it seems to be immediately shut down because tourism “helps the local economy”- and yet this author delicately explains how this is so far from the truth. Theme parks exploit labor, and as mentioned, also create “attractions” that harm by perpetuating stereotypes from BIPOC communities. Furthermore, I am happy to see this article mentions universal healthcare, because I AM SO OVER OUR HEALTH CARE SYSTEM! I am eager and desperate to find a better system, such as nationalized healthcare, because our system is currently killing people who are unable to afford the correct care and that is completely unacceptable. I also agree with the author that the work lights are on right now, not just for the theme park industry but for all of our society. We need to use this time in 2020 to make sure we are moving forward as a society. I need the people in this country to get their shit together. We have to do better.
I loved this article and think it was so well written. It really summed up everything that I have been kind of thinking during this pandemic that as much as this pandemic sucks it seems kind of needed and kind of an act of karma. This pandemic forced people to open their eyes and truly see what our nation looks like and what the process is that allows us to experience the "magic" we do. I think that theme parks exploit labor and when people attend these theme parks they just turn a blind eye to all the people that are tirelessly working to keep the magic alive. I have heard countless stories from my friends and read countless blog posts about specific theme parks having unsafe and unfair working conditions and it seems like these massive companies will do anything to hide that. It seems like our country was doing the same for the longest time, however now it just is not possible. With no magic to be experienced and everyone in the country having to rethink the way they live their lives, they are forced to see the racial inequality and the failings of capitalism that some have made the active choice to see earlier. I think even with this exposing of ugly truths people are still choosing to think that are country is at its best and there is nothing wrong with it, a sentiment that I think will always be in the United States. However we as citizens need to do better and realize that part of patriotism is working with your country to create a better space for all, seeing its flaws head on and fixing it.
It says a lot about a country when one major crisis causes literally everything falls apart. In many other countries, COVID hit and there has been major devastation in the economy, in peoples’ well-being, loss of life, and all of that, but look at the United States. A pandemic hit, and every major institution is not only being called into question, but actually crumbling. I liked the work lights quote in the article. We are finally dragging everything into the light, but, my fear, is that it is too late for a lot of things to do repair. We are beyond the stages of fixing things and patching them. We are at the point where we need the demolish the whole system and build a new one. We cannot keep covering things up because, as we have learned, the longer we cover things up, the worse it will be when those covers cannot hold. The theme park parallel that is drawn through the article is really fascinating. I honestly don’t think much about the inner workings of a theme park, but, thanks to this article, I see how deeply relevant that structure is to what so many other institutions are currently going through.
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