Disneyland Primps for Visit by VIP : Sprucing up: Staff concentrates on Tiki Room area, thought to be under study by boss Michael D. Eisner for renovation.
ANAHEIM — When the sun rises today over the Happiest Place on Earth, the graffiti-etched towel dispenser in the Enchanted Tiki Room men’s lavatory will have been replaced. A shroud will cover the yellow water hose and blue pump valve at the Frontier Landing. A new window shutter will hang in the River Belle Terrace.
Maintenance is an obsession at Disneyland, but even more so today. Park officials want the Magic Kingdom in tiptop shape because the boss is supposed to stop by.
A memo to the Disneyland maintenance staff lists 20 “action items” to be done in preparation for a visit by Michael D. Eisner, chairman of Walt Disney Co. All of them involve sprucing up the area around the Tiki Room, where sources say Eisner may be pondering a proposed renovation.
The memo asks seven departments--from the painters to the animators--to take care of such details as dusting off the talking robotic parrots and filling the cracks in a rock planter.
The tasks represent a special effort at a theme park where every inch is either swept or hosed every night and where light bulbs are replaced at 75% of their estimated life span so that none ever burns out. And even after the staff takes care of the final details, Eisner may not show up.
“He might. You never know when he’s coming out,” Disneyland President Jack Lindquist said. “If he was, I wouldn’t tell you.”
He said the chairman typically arrives unannounced from the company’s Burbank headquarters. Eisner strolls through the park by himself or with his family and takes notes on what works and what doesn’t. One night last year, Eisner worked as a soda jerk on Main Street USA.
Lindquist said there are no immediate plans to renovate the Enchanted Tiki Room. The Polynesian-themed attraction features singing robotic birds and was one of the park’s first uses of audio-animatronics.
A new Indiana Jones ride is slated for Adventureland but will not displace the Tiki Room. The Indiana Jones ride, the first of its kind at a Disney theme park, will be a motion-based attraction similar to the popular Star Tours ride in Tomorrowland.
Lindquist said he doesn’t mind rumors of impending VIP visits that cause stampedes among the maintenance crews. “It’s a great way to get things cleaned up,” he said.
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