What happens after dark in Disney's theme park

I had a fantastic experience doing a week of consulting at Tokyo Disneyland. I got a very unique view into the park from the other side of the fence.

Firstly, everyone is almost pathologically happy and friendly. It made for a very relaxed and easy working environment.

The attention to detail mentioned in the article extends into the backend. Everything was impeccably clean, and in order.

There is a uniform 'warehouse' - a huge sprawling uniform wardrobe containing thousands of uniforms in every possible size. People would walk up and say "Elf, Large size," and someone would run off and grab the appropriate costume.

Opposite the uniform area, there was a convenience store, with all the same trappings as a regular convenience store in the city.

There are secret 'doors' into the park. We used them for lunch. It was a surreal experience to use a secret door to get into the Disneyland Park, and go and order lunch at the Aladdin themed restaurant wearing a suit and tie.

Very interesting and enjoyable week to see the backend of such a large, well-oiled and well-managed operation.

In college I used to work summers as a technician at a large non-Disney amusement park, and I had a blast. Like many of the workers quoted in the article said, it truly was something new every day. Even though I mostly dealt with audio and lighting for the park/theaters, I would often find myself with random odd-jobs. I distinctly remember when a feral cat had kittens inside of a wall of one of our theaters. That resulted in an "elaborate" operation to safely remove the kittens armed with a device we fashioned from half an empty coke bottle, a stick, and copious amount of gaffers tape. I have no shortage of good stories from that summer job...

"Disney and many other parks recognize that keeping it clean and refreshed, with all of those little details that you don't notice until they are missing, are important to the park's success."

This is exactly how I feel about writing software.

> "When I started on Disneyland, my wife used to say, ‘But why do you want to build an amusement park? They're so dirty.' I told her that was just the point; mine wouldn't be,"

Wow. Talk about an eye for perfection.

Somewhat related: http://www.neatorama.com/2009/06/30/the-dark-side-of-disney/ (look out for the bits about sprinkling ashes in Disneyland, gave me the creeps)

I met the sound designer for Disney World on a plane once.

I wrote about it here: http://dustincurtis.com/how-mr-q-manufactured-emotion.html

This reminds me of the 'no broken windows' theory.

I worked for Imagineering for a bit and we would do all of our work in the parks at night. It is relatively quiet but there are plenty of white pick up trucks and workers around.

We did some stuff with the Indiana Jones ride and it was really cool to see it with all the work lights on. Many of the dark rides are fascinating when they power on all the lights. I bet that would be an awesome coffee table book.

(edit for typos)

If you are all interested in this stuff, there is a great behind the scenes book called "Realityland"

http://www.amazon.com/Realityland-True-Life-Adventures-Disne...

Beyond the weird and gruesome details highlighted by the Neatorama article it gives a behind the scenes view of how the parks came to be. It is especially interesting to read about Walt Disney's view on urban planning. He was a great entrepreneur and had an amazing vision.

reminds me of rollercoaster tycoon, where you also had to have a lot of guys kleening the park to keep customers happy :)

Giant orgies.

Given the title and the city associated with the article was I not the only one expecting to read something like, "Sex. Lots and lots of kinky sex. With Disney characters."

And yes, you will be disappointed.