Disney and our lost sense of community
When Walt Disney first opened his theme parks in California and Florida, he had every intention of making them available “to as many families as possible,” according to management consultant Daniel Currell.
“Everyone is a VIP,” was the official company motto at the time, and an employee handbook from the 1950s quoted Disney as saying, “We roll out the red carpet for the Jones family from Joliet just as we would (with a few embellishments) for the Eisenhowers from Palm Springs.”
Everyone paid the same admission price at the front gate, and everyone waited in the same line for the rides.
That is no longer the case today. Not only has the price of admission to both Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, more than doubled in just 10 years, but that upfront admission doesn’t really buy you much anymore. Unless you are willing to pay hundreds more per person, you are going to be waiting in even longer lines, all for the privilege of watching wealthier people skip the line right in front of you.