tenprincess wrote:OUt of curiosity, does this mean Disney actually does have people checking the show quality at WDW? And what does this entail?
Actually, there are at least three different groups that do Show Quality checks:
1. Imagineering does periodic "walk-throughs" of attractions, restaurants, and retail locations, as well as general area walks. These generally include area management, custodial management, and almost always the park vice president or their deputy. The result is a fat Show Quality Report that Imagineering fully expects to get a clear and definite response to. Generally they do, even though some answers are, "We'll put it in the next available budget proposal."
2. Park management does "walk-throughs", generally by line-of-business (attractions, retail, etc.). These also generate reports, but they don't generate results quite as often. I think this is because managers file the reports while the Imagineers come back and stand in front of your desk and ask WTF is going on!
3. Until 2003, the MK had one man in charge of coordinating "land show quality managers". Half the lands didn't participate, more gave the responsibility to one of their (already overburdened) GSMs, and Main Street Ops gave the job to me.
This program was discontinued in January 2004. The park coordinator was terminated, and the other monitors were reassigned (I went back to being a RR conductor.) By February 2005, Main Street Ops realized that they needed somebody who 1. cared, 2. knew enough about what the show was supposed to look like, and 3. was willing to follow through until the problems were resolved. They called me back.
My job involves viewing everything a guest can see on Main Street USA, documenting all show quality lapses, photographing them where possible, and partnering with the nineteen different maintenance departments to get things fixed. The working definition of Main Street is the area between the Castle forecourt stage and the Seven Seas Lagoon, including bus and monorail stations, Main Street vehicles (except horse cars), the WDW RR, the three WDW RR stations, the railroad track, and everything a guest can *see* while riding the railroad. At present, I'm skipping the interiors of restaurant and retail locations.
As of December 2003, there were 400 items on my list. By February 2005, 150 of them had been fixed. I'm now back up to about 500 items, some as old as 1998. Average time to repair is about 18 months, though it's a mix of a lot of quick fixes with a lot of difficult long-term problems. I do *not* think this is an entirely unreasonable backlog -- I am, after all, *very* fussy.
The standard I work to, and which I try to hold the maintenance departments to, is the "Mary Poppins Standard", which is "Practically perfect in every way." Not perfect, but as close as one can get without being impractical about it. Works for me! :D:
