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What will YOU celebrate at the Disneyland Resort next year?

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by
AVP
, 07-02-2008 at 09:35 AM (4849 Views)
If the commercial being filmed on Main Street yesterday afternoon can be taken as confirmation of a rumor I've been hearing for a couple of months, it looks like the Disneyland Resort will promote the Year of Celebrations in 2009, with the tag line "What Will You Celebrate?"

Portions of Main Street were roped off yesterday so film crews could tape footage of a princess gown-clad child and her mother walking down the lane, with the grandparents keeping pace a few feet behind. Cast members in stores up and down the street were chatting about the new promotion, though details at the hourly CM level are sketchy at best.

Everything I've heard about the new promotion - and I'll admit that most of what I've heard is rumor from people who may or may not be in the right departments to know the full details - is that this is a revamped version of the Magical Gatherings product from Walt Disney World (link to the WDW page).

Celebrating a birthday, an anniversary, a family reunion? Come to Disneyland! (Or as a cast member snarked to me regarding the lack of new rides being built at Disneyland, "We got nothing, you think of a reason to visit.")

2009 is a bridge year for Disney - the 55th anniversary is in 2010 - so a low-key promotion makes sense. During an interview session at the opening event for Toy Story Midway Mania I asked Xiomara Wiley, Vice President of Marketing for the Disneyland Resort, if an annual promotion is even necessary. Couldn't we just designate 2009 as the "Year of Being Open!" and move on?

What remains to be seen is how the Disneyland Resort tailors a WDW-sized product to a SoCal market. The Disneyland Resort can certainly position themselves as a destination park for milestone celebrations, but not on the same terms as Walt Disney World. WDW expects that you are going to bring a crowd and stay for the week to celebrate little Bobby's 3rd birthday or your parent's 25th wedding anniversary.

I've often celebrated a friend's birthday "on property," sometimes with groups of a dozen or more, but none of us even rent hotel rooms, much less stay for a week. For many locals, a family reunion may mean that their annual-passholder relatives in Arizona drive in for the weekend.

I'd like to see Disneyland create offerings and unique experiences that don't require a lengthy trip. This is really a great opportunity for the Disneyland Resort to reevaluate some of the offerings they currently have - like the impersonal group birthday party at the Plaza Inn - and look for ways to make them more appealing to locals and repeat visitors.

AVP

Categories
Disneyland , Featured

Comments

  1. Toocherie's Avatar
    Well, they're two years too late--I had my 50th birthday LAST year. I would have loved to have been able to celebrate at DLR--but other than having a big dinner at one of the DTD restaurants or hotels, there were really no good options at DLR. (Let's not even consider price.) If I wanted a dinner somewhere we could go elsewhere for great food and atmosphere.

    I wish they had provided a special offering either in the parks or at one of the resort hotels. Oh well . . . . maybe when I turn 55 . . . . .
  2. Niwel's Avatar
    So that's what the film crews were there for today. They delayed the opening of Tomorrowland and were filming around Fantasyland today.

    I admit that I laughed at the "We got nothing, you think of a reason to visit" line.

    As someone who has spent her 16th, 20th, 28th and 30th birthdays at the resort -- it would be nice to find something to replace the Plaza Inn party.
  3. Gone2Disneyland's Avatar
    I agree with your question, "Is an annual promotion even necessary?" If so, I'm tired of the last few promotional titles starting with "Year of..." too if that's what happens for 2009. The phrase is just plain stale and unimaginative now. But it sounds like some department is under the gun to reach some quota to book more hotel rooms or sell more ticket packages. I'd prefer to see something less "year"-ly and more "magical" or "pixie dust" or ... I dunno, but something we haven't heard in the last couple of years already. Even "Disneyland - The Place for Celebrations" works for me.
  4. olegc's Avatar
    to me there are things here that concern me about how WW Parks and Resorts still feels necessary to use the same promotions (although tweaked here) across all of their parks. If they want to promote celebrations here at Disneyland, take advantage of the "staycation" attitudes and promote it to locals. Create an incentive of staying at least one night or two at the resort to do that; offer some unique experience like special tables or areas within the parks to do the celebrating. As the comment from the cast member put it "you figure out what to celebrate". To me - it's a little bit of a copout to promote celebrations at DLR without REALLY creating some sort of incentives or special mini-venues to do the celebrating.

    It really comes back to the claim that Disney vacations and related experiences should be different and unique. Just taking your money for a hotel stay or park entrance saying "hey it's Disneyland, not the other guys" just still smacks of an attitude like we don't have to work as hard. I know that's not the position of a lot of cast members and operational folks at Disneyland Resort - but Marketing is still stuck in that "let's please Jay" mode. Mr Iger - please make a change there.

    I will agree about not needing a promotion every single year. Let's get some rest....