Disney World (Florida) was built on what's basically the top floor of a parking garage, so that all infrastructure and access could be "underground" and out of sight.

Which is an interesting enough topic on its own, but one thing this allowed was for trash cans to "bottomless": the trash dropped through to conveyor belts below.

No one has to see trash carts or be grossed out watching a trash can be emptied. It also prevented stinky trash drippings from falling on the hardscapes.

Along came the recycling movement, and Disney was quick to implement single stream trash collection and recycling, sorting all trash for recycling after it was collected.

But people were angry that Disney didn't have visible recycling bins next to garbage cans. They would interrupt employees and give them their recyclables. Employees, knowing it all got sorted anyway, would throw it away. Which made people angrier, even if they were told that everything would be sorted for recycling.

So angry, that Disney had to spend a huge amount of money installing "dummy" recycling cans next to the existing trash cans. Cutting holes through reinforced concrete slabs. Major construction.

These also emptied onto the same single stream garbage collection system, but visitors were pacified.

The two fun facts I’ve always liked about this are:

- They change the texture of the ground in between lands/park areas so when you walk over it you realize something’s different and look around.

- they “invented” a color, Go-Away Green, which emulates the color of grass, and the fire hydrants and other structural stuff are painted with it. Look in a flower bed next time you are there and you’ll see them if you’re careful, but you don’t realize them until you know.

https://insidethemagic.net/2021/04/disney-go-away-green-lp1/

"A clean environment is a pleasure to the senses."

I remember seeing this on a plaque on a porch on Main Street. It had an attribution, which I have forgotten, but could never track down who said it.

In any case, that simple concept permeates the parks and created a benchmark that no other theme park has matched (to my knowledge).

> watch how far they walked before they threw the wrapper on the ground

I'd throw those kids out of the park. Probably why I could never be Walt Disney :-)

> As you walk from one themed area to another, the "transition areas" play the treble from the area you are leaving, and the bass for the area you are entering.

That gives new meaning to the term "crossover".

This is really interesting! Thank you for sharing the article. Looking forward to reading it this evening and learn something new.

Wow, the Banjo Kazooie music effect in real life.

yeah it’s a little bleak tbh, the scents are an attempt to influence your memory and make you hungry, and things like magic bands are meant to make you spend as much money as possible by making money more opaque

How much of it is fandom (=people admire Disney for it just because it sounds logical and because they like the Disney identity), how much of it is actually making a difference in the children’s mind. Maybe it’s only additional details to keep adults busy with something to notice. Maybe “whatever” would suffice.

We need A/B testing to check whether it increase sales ;)

Have they tried positioning the park West-East vs North-South to check the conversion rates!?