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View Full Version : Write your own Myths, Mysteries and Legends tour



AVP
11-26-2004, 11:36 PM
OK, this one's for those of you who took the MML tour at Disneyland:

I know a lot of us were disapointed by the tour, and thought that it was missing something. If YOU were in charge of re-writing the tour, what would you do? What would you add, subtract or change from the tour as it was presented this past year?

Here are the ground rules:

1) The tour *must* take place during park operating hours - the tour group can't be inside either park after hours.
2) The tour can not detract from the guest experience - no dancing in the Haunted Mansion ballroom scene, no riding Pirates with the lights on, no walking the Indy track.
3) There may be no discussion of actual accidents or fatalities at Disneyland.
4) The tour can't go backstage - Walt's apartment and the Fantasmic! film bunker are off limits. (Ok, if you want to send your tour group off stage, you really need a very, very compelling argument for it)

Within those guidelines, which seem to be the rules that all current Disneyland tours follow, what would you do?

AVP

D-lander 1956
11-27-2004, 06:57 AM
Geez, breaking all of your ground rules described the perfect tour! :D

Wendi
11-27-2004, 09:47 AM
Nothing really specific... just think I would've liked it better if the ghost stories seemed more real, and maybe even more current. Maybe more like the CMs that work in Indiana Jones report seeing strange happenings and make some stories surrounding those occurences, KWIM? Make it a little more eerie.

kbanmen
11-27-2004, 09:49 AM
I agree with you Wendi..they should seem more real

kbanmen
11-27-2004, 09:51 AM
Here are the ground rules:

1) The tour *must* take place during park operating hours - the tour group can't be inside either park after hours.
2) The tour can not detract from the guest experience - no dancing in the Haunted Mansion ballroom scene, no riding Pirates with the lights on, no walking the Indy track.
3) There may be no discussion of actual accidents or fatalities at Disneyland.
4) The tour can't go backstage - Walt's apartment and the Fantasmic! film bunker are off limits. (Ok, if you want to send your tour group off stage, you really need a very, very compelling argument for it)

I like these rules..and yes I would do it

Maus
11-27-2004, 09:55 AM
Working within your parameters it would be difficult to make the tour more interesting. If the ghost stories were more specific to Disneyland, as the one about the children stolen from the village was, that would have been an improvement. The haunted mansion story would have been vastly improved if the NBC overlay had not been there. It would have been cool to perhaps encounter some additional ghostly characters along the way. And I really would have appreciated some sort of take-home goodie, even just a button or pin.

BJW
11-27-2004, 11:49 PM
I did enjoy this tour but was slightly underwhelmed by how corny it was. At a Six Flags or Paramount park it would have seemed spectacular, but I was expecting a little more out of Disney. For instance, the trick they did where you walk up the steps and the other tour guide is hiding in the building rattling chains is not a "special effect" up to Disney standards. Since the tour was geared to mature audiences they should have put some scares along the way like Knotts does for haunt. It wouldn't have to be too elaborate, just enough actors to do a good scare.

Since so many guests crave a "backstage" experience they should rig a small backstage portion to give the guests a scare. They could keep it away from places where large amounts of CMs congregate and have some type of actor or special effect rigged to go off. This could be done very cheap and I'm surprised Disney didn't think of it. ToT did the story of the dead writer, they could have put a mannequin of the writer on the floor of one of the two elevator stops. Whenever the group rides Indy, Big Thunder, or HM they could put actors along the track to scare you. Implementing these ideas may mean raising the price a little but would be worth it to improve the tour. I liked the idea of the dead guy leading the tour though.

DaddyB
11-28-2004, 06:36 PM
I would have more depth to the actual TOT theme of the people on the elevator instead of the dead actor story.

I think debugging some of the false trivia around the parks would have been interesting... not halloween based, just false trivia like the 'unpainted spire' legend and the 'center of Disneyland' spike legend.

I thought the made up story of the children missing from the village was just stupid. Telling the story of how the skyway came to close, and also about the death of Frank Wells and his tribute on the matterhorn would have been much more touching.

The whole 'legend of sleepy hollow' thing in the Big Thunder Ranch area was pretty bad, too... it's Big Thunder Ranch, not a forest in upstate new york.... but maybe if someone had clip-clopped a horse behind the fence as the story was being told...

A discussion of the mystery's and legends of New Orleans would have been good while we were in New Orleans Square. Perhaps pointing out the Louisiana State flag that flys over New Orleans square as well as the masts and sails that you can see in the distance above New Orleans square/club 33.

Instead of the whole goofy HM story that didn't jibe with Nightmare Before Christmas overlay (which is the thing most talked about) I think a discussion of how the whole Nightmare Before Christmas overlay came about would have been better.

I guess I wasn't really looking for spooky and ooky. Just a debunking of the mysterys myths and legends surrounding the park, the Disney Company, and Walt Disney himself.