What Mickey Can't Do

The Huff-N-Puff from Sellner Manufacturing.

Learn more about them here: http://www.whirlin.com/kiddie_rides.html

Growing up as a kid, I believed there was nothing that Disney couldn't do. While there's still a soft spot in me that wants to believe that, time and experience have taught that the size and slickness you find at Disney, Universal, Busch, and the other big guns comes at a price. Take capacity for instance.

If you are a big park and you are expecting 15, 20, or 45 thousand people in your gate at any given moment, capacity is right up there with Jesus, Mary, and ammunition. Everyone who has been to a park and given the operation of the joint five minutes thought knows that. It's why the parks spring for big-budget rides like Pirates of the Caribbean. They can eat up the people. Get 'em in, get 'em through, get 'em out. The air conditioning doesn't hurt.

Most people avoid Dumbo, even Peter Pan's Flight, when the parks are crushed because the time invested isn't worth what you get from it.

In the name of efficiency, Disney has set a minimum threshold of acceptability. But consider what they deny themselves, and their guests. Quiet experiences. Self-guided experiences. Experiences with more than one front door. Experiences that offer more than a single, inherently obvious flow. Experiences that encourage high dwell time, repeatability, or non-traditional usage. Experiences that don't squash spontanaeity.

(Busch has knocked on this door a little with Discovery Cove, but for those who have visited the headline attraction--swimming with the dolphins--is a very regimented affair. Plus the dolphins will only let you get to second base.)

This is a theme we plan to explore here. If you have any thoughts, we'd love to hear them.

And, hey, don't those Huff-N-Puffs look fun?