Podcasting “Disneyland at a stroll”

Winding up my series on “amusement parks, crowd control, and load-balancing” (for now).

This week on my podcast, I read parts four and five of my Medium series on “amusement parks, crowd control, and load-balancing” — “Expectations management” and “Disneyland at a stroll.”

https://craphound.com/news/2021/08/22/disneyland-at-a-stroll/

“Expectations management” runs down the techniques that Disney uses to move — and hold — crowds in the parks. This is an old conundrum (think of PT Barnum’s “This way to the egress” signs”) but Disney’s versions are a mix of sophistication and deceit.

https://doctorow.medium.com/expectations-management-part-v-2ad8183fd1ce

Disney queue spaces are reconfigurable, with out-of-sight spillover areas that can be opened or closed as needed, so that from outside the ride, the queue always seems to be long enough to signal something fun, but not so long as to seem like a penance to wait in.

And Disney uses subtle design cues, like adding or removing detail, to pull you through its built environments. The more detailed something is, the more you’re drawn to it.

(Tokyo Disney Sea, with its incredible, uniform, fetishistic, gorgeous detail, is actually…