Just the word Disneyland conjures up so many images and ideas about America that I was quite excited about going there. It is a brand that has become inseparable from the country of its invention and although it may be less associated than McDonald’s with US hegemony and globalisation, it is probably more practically responsible for it.
However, excited as I was Holden and Phoebe were ten times so - which was a good thing as getting our family of four the most basic entry for a day cost close to A$300.
We were there mid week, mid winter and might have expected it to be half empty but of course Disneyland is never empty. It can’t be. It needs a constant flow of dollars and lots of them. It is a gargantuan effort of organisation and without a vast number of people arriving every day and forking over a lot of greenback it would collapse very quickly.
Nowhere is the science of handling high volumes of people as perfected as Disneyland. Everything runs smoothly, everything is clean and you don't notice how many people are there.
At first the employee greetings of “have a magical day” seem a bit lame, but it's hard to remain cynical when you see the extraordinary special effects and robotic technology of the rides and also the surprising sense of humour displayed by many of the ride staff. For example, on exiting "the jungle tour" - which had taken all of five minutes - the boat driver told us we had been a wonderful group ... and that she would miss us .... and she loved us .... deeply. Some of the Americans simply didn't get it and started grumbling about her having "lost it". We thought it was hilarious.
A visit to Disneyland also has an almost patriotic meaning to many Americans. There are literally hundreds of extended families running around the park wearing loud matching t-shirts with slogans such as “Jones’ family road trip 2007” with a map on the back of their journey from Iowa. Without even realising it they are on an odd secular pilgrimage to worship at Space Mountain, Frontierland and the Matterhorn Bobsled ride.
It may sound an odd description of what on the face of it is a children’s theme park, but I walked away from Disneyland astounded by what is possible with enough money, enough desire and enough brainpower. In my view Disneyland is as much a monument to US ingenuity as NASA. It may also encapsulate much of the unauthenticity, even fakery that is in the US national character. The same country that put a man on the moon mostly chooses to make 5 billion burgers that are cheap and taste exactly the same.
1 comment:
I really enjoyed your spot-on analysis of Disneyland, Andrew. It's the sort of place you tell yourself you're going for the kids, and finish up being equally enchanted — if for other reasons — as them. Have you caught up with Mark & June yet? Make the most of your remaining days in the US of A.
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