Disneyland employs hundreds of people to design and develop new stuff at its theme parks. Imagineers create rides. Disney Live Entertainment creates shows and nighttime spectaculars. Chefs prepare new menus, and other designers help create new toys and merchandise to be sold across the resort.
But let’s not forget who might be the most important person shaping what gets built and sold at Disney — you.
When I visited Hong Kong Disneyland a few weeks ago, I walked through one of the most unusual stores I have seen in a Disney theme park. Tick Tock Toys and Collectibles is the shop at the exit of the Frozen Ever After boat ride in the park’s new World of Frozen land. Like everything else in World of Frozen, it feels like a location that is authentic to the Kingdom of Arendelle.
The shop offers knitted Olaf snowmen, handsome sweaters, cute dresses and accessories to help a visitor dress like an Arendelle villager. It even sells Arendelle stamps and coins. The design of the store fits the land and even includes a few Easter eggs referencing other tales by Hans Christian Andersen, the Danish author who wrote “The Snow Queen,” the story that inspired Disney’s “Frozen.”
So of course, I wondered how long it would last. Tick Tock Toys was the only store I found at Hong Kong Disneyland that did not sell merchandise themed to Duffy and Friends, the wildly popular merchandise line inspired by Mickey Mouse’s teddy bear. A thoughtfully designed store at the exit of the park’s award-winning Mystic Manor ride no longer sells much of anything themed to that attraction. It’s almost all Duffy, instead.
Back at Disneyland, I have been enjoying the New Orleans-inspired menu at the new Tiana’s Palace restaurant, which took over the old French Market space. I love the hearty beef po’boy, the flavorful gumbo and the tasty red beans & rice. But I already am hearing word that Tiana’s Palace is eliciting a not insignificant number of complaints from other Disneyland guests. I fear that Tiana’s will end up like Flo’s V8 Café, which lost its delightful menu of blue-plate roast beef, pork loin and turkey dinners in favor of yet more burgers and chicken strips.
Disney makes changes to its stores and restaurants because it is a business, and it’s got to go with what actually sells — not just what looks appealing to opening-day critics like me. (Though I did spend over $100 US of my own money on stuff from Tick Tock Toys. I wanted to get the good stuff before it’s gone.)
That’s how Disney’s fans get to shape the direction of the parks. It’s not like Disney can unilaterally decide that it’s only going to sell Duffy merch in its theme parks. Disney tried pushing Duffy at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and U.S. fans failed to embrace the lineup the way that visitors in Disney’s Asia parks have.
So if you like the food at Tiana’s, the toys in Galaxy’s Edge or anything else unique for sale in the parks, vote to support it with your dollars. Because people who want the same old same old in the parks are voting with theirs.