Interesting comments about Disneyland on National Review Online

[speederscout]

How are the 2-3 word announcements in Spanish obtrusive?

I believe he means that they yank you out of the moment, as in on Haunted Mansion. It's just jolting. The English safety spiel is given as part of the show; suddenly, out of the blue, you're hearing another voice saying something in Spanish. Park-wide announcements are one thing because they are general announcements, but once you're already underway in a specific "show" it amounts to discontinuity. I think if there was some way to give short safety spiels in both languages right before you entered the ride vehicles it wouldn't be such a jolt, and would make for a smoother onboard experience regardless of which language you speak.

[RobotMirror]

Since they're safety related, and thus provide warnings to guests (and help provide a defense in case of injuries), I don't see the warnings in Spanish going away anytime soon.

[PragmaticIdealist]

Since they're safety related, and thus provide warnings to guests (and help provide a defense in case of injuries), I don't see the warnings in Spanish going away anytime soon.

Speederscout is right. The problem isn't that Disney includes announcements in Spanish, Japanese, and other languages. It's the way that they are incorporated into the experiences that is just not right.

I would prefer that Disney make announcements in multiple languages before guests even enter Disneyland (at the tram stops, for example) and specifically and forcefully direct guests who do not speak English to obtain and read materials written in the other languages. The safety instructions are so long now that they occupy a good part of the duration of each ride-through experience.

Can't some of this be handled in the queues or at the entrances? And, how many different impressions do people need? If the average guest visits 10-11 attractions per day, plus the tram, and each attraction tells guests to do the same thing thirteen times, the guest is being told to stay seated and supervise any children 130-143 times each day, and you still have people jumping from the Mark Twain and passing their children between the cars at Roger Rabbit.

If Disney were more forceful and serious in the way that it communicates and enforces its policies, much of this overkill would not be necessary (not that it's necessary now).

Disney used to give instructions to guests and expel from the premises any of them that failed to comply. Why doesn't the new management reinstitute this way of operating?

[WannaCub]

* The movie on California’s history at California Adventure is undiluted leftist agit-prop — with Whoopie Goldberg as the host, no less.

I completly agree with this comment, the first time I saw this movie, I felt as if I was watching some democrat campagin, to vote democrat.

And here I thought I was just watching a movie about California in a park themed to California.

I guess I'm too dense to realize that Golden Dreams is a political venue.

*end sarcasm*

[Uzmati]

Big deal some neoconned partisan hack doesn't like DL/DCA and makes a point to write about his Caliphobia and post his "thoughts" on a website that regularly attacks California and it's citizens using some of the lowest smear tactics it can scrape from the bottom of it's barrel. All because their party can't seem to win the State's electoral votes. Excuse me while I yawn.

Must be election season, I smell politricks, ad hominem attacks and desperation in the air. Can't electioneering be banned from the boards or at least put in the litterbox where it belongs?

Golden Dreams while not the best movie I've ever seen is sure a great way to escape the heat on a summer day. I doubt it's ever going to actually change anyone's mind on anything and to be honest I don't think it tries to. Only some sad partisan hack in full election spin cycle would even bother to think so.

What didn't they love the Reagan/Nixon/Disney shots in the final montage or did they storm out in a political huff long before that.

Charges of Propaganda from the Nation Review.... Now THAT'S funny.

[RobotMirror]

Speederscout is right. The problem isn't that Disney includes announcements in Spanish, Japanese, and other languages. It's the way that they are incorporated into the experiences that is just not right.

I would prefer that Disney make announcements in multiple languages before guests even enter Disneyland (at the tram stops, for example) and specifically and forcefully direct guests who do not speak English to obtain and read materials written in the other languages. The safety instructions are so long now that they occupy a good part of the duration of each ride-through experience.

Can't some of this be handled in the queues or at the entrances? And, how many different impressions do people need? If the average guest visits 10-11 attractions per day, plus the tram, and each attraction tells guests to do the same thing thirteen times, the guest is being told to stay seated and supervise any children 130-143 times each day, and you still have people jumping from the Mark Twain and passing their children between the cars at Roger Rabbit.

If Disney were more forceful and serious in the way that it communicates and enforces its policies, much of this overkill would not be necessary (not that it's necessary now).

Disney used to give instructions to guests and expel from the premises any of them that failed to comply. Why doesn't the new management reinstitute this way of operating?

Couldn't this be solved by putting instructions in all languages, including English, in written materials, and in announcements in the front? You have the same "130-143 announcements each day" in English under the current system, and your [proposed] system still wouldn't fix your alleged problem of the announcements being too "jolting" for your sensitivities.

If you wanted to protect the ride experience from the announcements at the beginning and the end of the ride, then getting rid of the English announcements also would be the way to do it. That way you get a ride totally immersed in the experience, without audio interruptions for safety warnings.

But as I said, in my personal opinion, that isn't going to happen. Considering the point of view of the industry that Hispanics are saving theme parks from declining attendance, combined with the support of academic researchers of this exact same point of view, expect more Spanish in the years to come.

[mrfantasmic]

"Set closer together, and keep your ruddy hands inboard..."
"Para su seguridad..."
Many of the safety spiels I don't mind. Some of the more modern ones are being done in character, rather than just saying the spiel.
I disagree with ones that disrupt the story, especially Haunted Mansion, and believe that Disney can come up with a much better way of working this out.
But this guy in NRO is full of crock in his ignorance. If he were better informed, and it showed in his writing, I might be inclined to listen to him, but as he is now... come ON.